Timmy - Olentangy Indian Caverns

So. You've got an afternoon to kill, a fetish for rocks and no desire at all to be out past dark? Olentangy Indian Caverns is your ticket to a good, cheap time.

Apparently Michael Jackson's ancestors were Native Americans!

The caverns, located near SR315 on Home Rd (north of Powell-ish), are a scenic trip away from the city-slash-'burbs without being too far. No hotel reservation or plans to stay with those creepy relatives you only see at Christmas are needed, you will have plenty of time to get back home and sleep in your own bed.

Lynn and I purchased our "self-guided tour" admissions (buy-one-get-one with the coupon from the Entertainment Book, yay!), grabbed the smartly laminated (but mostly confusing) map and headed down the hill towards the cavern entrance, which apparently, is underneath the museum.

Exploring the caverns was a lot of fun; I mostly shuffled about futzing with the map and trying to avoid injury on low-hanging rocks (Over 6'1"? You may want to reconsider). Some kind of weird sci-fi mania overtook my normally squeamish partner -the same girl who yelled at me for touching the bottom of my shoe once- causing her to attempt to shimmy into each dimly-lit crevice of the cave we happened upon.

Yeah, Lynn totally wanted to explore that. No thanks, I said.

After wandering about the cave, listening to the disembodied voice describe assorted scenes of gritty, mossy, glistening or ominous cave-ness, we wound our way out and returned to the gift shop (must return map!) to peruse their selection. Lynn bought a ring, I considered some of their fine Olentangy Indian Caverns Dippin' Dots but alas, it was not to be.

We did partake in some old-fashioned-but-still-not-that-old-fashioned mining activity. We each bought a bag of goodie-enriched dirt and headed down to the sluice to see what we got.

Lynn's bag contained some fossils, a few teeth (sharp!) and this fine piece of gold!

Hahaha it's Fool's Gold (aka Pyrite), fool!

After playing with the dirt for a while, we headed for home. Overall the visit lasted us about 2 hours, which was well worth the price of admission (especially with the coupon) and short time to get there.

I'd recommend the Olentangy Indian Caverns to anyone looking to have some old-fashioned, slightly dirt-heavy fun on a weekend. Also a great excuse for adults to play with dirt, though it may be less obvious if you bring children as a cover-up.

Pros:

1. Cheap - Admission for the self-guided tour was only $8.50/person.
2. Close to home - Trip was ~25 minutes from downtown Columbus
3. FUN! - Explore a cave, walk in the woods, play with dirt and rocks like a kid.

Cons:

1. Dangerous - Tall people and small children may want to avoid. Lots of opportunity to hit your head and or fall into a hole that goes who knows where.
2. Unchanging - It's not like they add new rocks to the caverns.

Score: 8/10 - Skip the movie marathon on TV and go visit the Olentangy Indian Caverns!