Fun with Geology

The Ohio Islands?

Believe it or not…in the warm weather, Ohio actually has a group of vacation islands that are a very busy summer destination. The main two islands are Kelleys Island and South Bass Island (a.k.a. Put-in-Bay). There are other islands, but nobody pays much attention to them. To get to the islands, you catch a ferry from the mainland. Once on the island, unless you have access to a boat (nope), your entertainment options are somewhat narrow. With a few exceptions, your choices are biking, hiking or drinking. Furthermore, renting a golf cart is often substituted for biking and hiking. Also, in order to keep our drinking limited to the PM times, I dug deep into the available entertainment options and came up with some fun with geology.

Its All about the Glaciers

Our first day on the islands was spent on Kelleys Island. Before drinking, we drove our golf cart about the island with the final destination being the “Glacial Grooves.” As geology goes, the glacial grooves were actually quite interesting. The glacial grooves are basically a 400 feet long, 35 feet wide, and 15 feet deep gouge in the earth. At some point, the Kellys Island tourism director threw a fence around this gouge and declared it a “National Natural Landmark.” These glacial grooves have been Kelleys Island’s top, non-drinking, tourist attraction ever since.

Sure, the glaciers are responsible for all the topography in this area. However, the glacial grooves give you a more vivid picture of the impact of the slow movement of massive glaciers. Clearly, the grooves are the best non-drinking attraction on Kellys Island.

More Geology…but with alcohol!

On day 2 of our romantic Ohio islands get away, Carol and I ferried over to Put-in-Bay island. So, on Put-in-Bay, there is an attraction where we could continue our geology theme AND drink wine. One of the popular wineries on the island is Heineman’s Winery. Beyond all the usual winery basics, this winery also features a geode. You know…those roundish, hollow rocks that have crystals inside. However, this is no normal geode. It’s the “World’s Largest Geode”…and its under the winery…and you can walk through it…and its called the Crystal Cave.

Up until this tour, the only geodes that I ever saw were the little round ones with pretty purple or pink crystals inside. This geode was not round, nor were the crystals purple or pink. The geode was like a small cave. Furthermore, the crystals (i.e. celestite) were mostly whitish in color. All in all, the Crystal Cave was quite interesting. However, my only complaint was that we were not allowed to take our wine down into the geode. We could drink before and after the tour. But, for liability reasons, there was no drinking in the geode.

Wrap It Up

Alright…that is probably enough. After all, you can only have so much fun with geology. For all you non-Ohioans, I hope that you are now more enlightened about our summer vacation islands. The Lake Erie islands are a great summer destination for relaxing on pseudo beaches, boating, fishing, hiking, biking, drinking and, of course, studying geology. Have a wonderful day. PT

I hope you have enjoyed “Fun with Geology” on Traveling with PugsleyTonks.

If you tolerated the science theme, here was another science-y post https://travelingwithpt.com/listening-in-on-the-aliens/

If you now feel like planning your next summer get-away to the Erie Islands, here you go https://www.shoresandislands.com/communities/islands/