Who:
David Franklin
Outing leader, webmaster
Where:
Bethany, OK
On August 6th, a group of fellow Sierra Club members and I set off to enjoy the planet. We had met up the night before to camp on the University of Central Oklahoma's Selman Living Lab located in northwest Oklahoma and enjoyed looking at the stars at the observatory on site.
The Selman Living Lab consists of 334 acres, two large caves, more than 20 species of prairie fish, and a variety of other wildlife. The day started off early with a plant walk in this Great Plains prairie land which plays host to more than 230 different plant species. Volunteers from the University introduced us to the plants and some of the issues that threatened those species.
Next, it was time for a trip through a wild cave on the property that is a winter home to up to two million bats and is the eighth largest gypsum cave in the world at over two miles long. This hike involved crawling in the mud and squeezing between some narrow sections, but all in all it was amazing to see the sculpted rock. We had to wash the mud off before we enjoyed a nice picnic lunch.
After that is was off to a nearby state park and another cave tour, this time to a "developed" cave with built-in lights. The day ended with watching hundreds of thousands of bats take flight from yet another cave. Between the bats, the plants, and the stars, it was a lot of fun.
