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 H
2O. 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
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