Karchner Caverns

2006 August 9, Wednesday

So about 30 years ago, this guy heard there might be a cavern in the hills near Benson, AZ. He pokes around some, finds a tiny hole blowing out the sweet (to spelunkers) perfume of bat guano. He doesn't go in, but nurses his find for a few years, when he returns with a friend.
This time, they had their equipment. They widened the hole just enough to squeeze in, and Lo! What they did find! And then, they sat on this great discovery for years until everything was in place to open it in the best way possible, with all known engineering working toward preserving and protecting the caverns. As the t-shirt says "Cave Softly."
It's all about the H2O. It had a lot of undisturbed geologic time to work on the underground space, building fantastic, fragile, colorful reverse sculptures. Not carved out of anything, but stone built from scratch.
What do water and minerals care about us? Pish.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
deb
why no pictures? because the caverns have been carefully protected. you may take a guided walk through them, but you may carry nothing with you. no backpack, no water bottle, no camera. vast chambers with delicate spires that the merest touch would disturb. a mud floor with the still-fresh 20-year-old footprints along a single carefully-chosen path. for us: the concrete walkway painstakingly engineered to be cleaned by drizzling water from the top and pumped out from the bottom. don't touch anything. you may grasp the stainless steel handrail if you must.
dvb

Kartchner State Park -- An Addendum

2006 August 8, Monday Night

The nicest State Park we stayed at. Why? Showers, my friends, including a Family Shower. If anyone had challenged us to show our family credential we would have been sunk. But they didn't, and we enjoyed the facilities greatly.
We had a nice hike, saw interesting plant and insect life, and about the time we got back to our home, great thunderheads had built up in about 3 of the 4 directions, and a couple in between.
It was a glorious night of lightning all around us. The rain came and cooled things off. The only drawback was a rather busy 2-lane highway nearby. A feeble complaint.
Visit Kartchner if you can.
deb