Lost River

Every year, Mrs. Tester takes her 3rd grade class to the Lost River Gorge in the White Mountains of New Hampshire,

Heather and her friends sit on the "Sun Altar" in one of the caves of Lost River.

"The Lost River Gorge & Boulder Caves, located in New Hampshire’s Kinsman Notch in the White Mountains, is a land of spectacular beauty forged by the powerful forces of water, wind, weather, and time. The shaping of Kinsman Notch and the surrounding mountains began about 300 million years ago. The Ice Age brought glaciers more than a mile thick that grounded, lifted, and deposited rocks that formed notches and mountains. When the ice melted, the water carried debris, eroding the rocks and forming Lost River Gorge.

Lost River is so-named because the brook draining from the south east part of Kinsman Notch disappears below the surface in the narrow, steep-walled glacial gorge. The Gorge is partially filled with immense blocks of granite, through which the brook cascades along its subterranean course until it eventually emerges and joins the Pemigewasset River, which flows south from Franconia Notch."

-Lost River Website

Admiring the waterfalls.

Going to the center of the Earth.

Mrs. Tester is retiring at the end of this year, so this is her last group of third graders to go to Lost River.

In this cave, if you look above to the overhang, there is a natural map of the United States.

Lots of photo ops. 

After finishing the tour of the caves and having a picnic lunch, the students were treated to an experience of "panning for gold." Each of them received a bag of "rough" ( sand and gravel) and sifted to reveal lots of different kind of gems and shark teeth.

Mrs. Tester has made it clear that she has really loved having this group of kids as her last class and gets a little choked up when she talks of her retirement. I'm glad that all 3 of our kids had the chance to have her as a teacher.