Skylight Cave

by Ilya G. (grade 6)

On Friday, September 18 2015, the Black Butte School went to Skylight Cave. After a short walk and a look down the holes in the ground that light up the cave (hence the name Skylight Cave), we met up with a US Forest Service biologist named Julie who studies bats. She told us about white-nose syndrome, a disease that kills bats by waking them up. A bat waking up takes 30 minutes and uses a lot of energy. Then they start wasting more energy to clean themselves. Did I mention it usually happens in the middle of winter when there isn’t a lot of food? We also learned about different types of bats and where they live. There are tons of bats!
After the talk we geared up with head lamps and helmets and began the adventure. The first thing we had to do was climb down a ladder. The kindergarteners (Mia and Zion) went first followed by the rest of us. When we all got down, we went to see the skylights and what I call the tomb (it really looks like a tomb from Lord Of The Rings). Also, there is this amazing “sun clock.” It is a ray of sunlight that moves with the rotation of the Earth! We also saw a bat. Then we went to the caved part. It had tons of strange fungi and little worms. We saw another bat and experienced complete darkness. All in all it was fun!!!