-Temperature in cave = 67 degrees F

-Humidity in cave = 99% (!!!!)

-A giant sloth mock-up that beeps at you if you even THINK about touching it

-A display on bat guano and 'moonmilk'

-An exhibit on bats and how they eat insects

-A group of kids stuck in the cave mock-up

-Another kid whining so much that he appears to be having a seizure

-Exhibit on cave types: limestone, ice, lava, talus, and sea caves.

In the gift shop, there are lots of neat rocks for sale. I also learned more than I ever wanted to know about Kokopelli....

Finally it was time for the tour. The guide was an older woman, and I asked her why the caves are so humid. She said: 'WATER'. Wonderful. Anyway, she explained the basics of cave life. Bat guano is the basis of the food chain in the cave, at the very bottom. The bats themselves consume up to 600 insects per hour, and as a species have been around for at least 50,000 years.

Next she explained the history of the cave. Approximately 300 million years ago, what is now Arizona was covered by shallow seas. More recently, two college students found the caves by looking in a sinkhole, discovering a thirty foot tunnel. At the back of this tunnel, they could feel a draft coming through cracks in the walls, and after a little bit of digging, they emerged into the cave.

The other group in our tour was from Idaho. However, according to the website of the Flat Earth Society, the states of Idaho and North Dakota do not in fact exist, along with England and Australia.

We are not supposed to touch ANYTHING natural in the caves, because even the oil on your skin can halt millions of years worth of growth. Instead, we should 'hug the calcium carbonate', the rocks just before the cave entrance. The 'ocotillo' are spiky plants that grow near the limestone rocks just outside of the cave.

We then proceeded into the cave tunnel, which is a 'conservation chamber', sort of like a sophisticated version of the two sets of doors found in office buildings and mall entrances, preventing the air from mixing too fast. This particular tunnel is a mining tunnel, created with small dynamite charges. When the tunnel nearly reached the cave, it was dug out by hand. This phase was supposed to take only eight months, but the digging took nearly two years.

The humidity inside of the tunnel was extreme; the water here dries out only 1/80 as fast as in the desert outside. The temperature is a constant 68 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

At last it was time to enter the cave itself. To use a cliched expression, words simply cannot describe the majesty of these immense caves, filled with bizarre and fascinating stone formations created over hundreds of millions of years, far before the emergence of modern man and even the dinosaurs. I can only imagine how the two college students must have felt when they emerged into this awe-inspiring underground world, and I commend their successful effort to keep the caverns a secret until they could be entrusted to the state government.

The pavement we walk on (and the railings that we are allowed to touch) are periodically hosed down to remove organic substances discarded by humans such as skin, hair and so forth. The water is then used to water the plants outside. Speaking of water, the large cavern we emerged into was formerly saturated with water. This rainwater was actually a weak carbonic acid which dissolved the limestone, forming the cave.

Many of the cave formations we examined have the names of food. I speculate that the college students who found the caves may have been very hungry when they were naming the formations. Anyway, the rainwater flowing through the cave deposited calcites, creating formations known as 'draperies' with calcite crystal trails, also called 'Butterscotch'. These calcite deposits also create the whitish 'moonmilk' described earlier. Different streaks of color in the stone are the result of mineral impurities. Another strange sight was the 'cave bacon', which looks like...well, like giant strips of bacon stuck to the cave walls. The guide informed us that the bacon-like colors are formed by manganese deposits. Yet another food-formation was the 'popcorn', which looked like giant, gray bits of popcorn stuck to the walls.

Continuing onward, we were able to see a large mud flat, with a surface of dried, cracked dirt. The guide informed us that the appearance is deceiving; the mud is actually around twenty feet deep. This mud holds water, releasing the water into the air to maintain humidity. Sometimes the water actually overflows, turning the mud flat into a lake one side of the cavern. On the other side, the original trail used by the college students and early tourists can still be seen, as there is nothing to wash it away.

The guide showed us a few more cave formations, most notably the 'shield' formation that forces water around it like a garden hose (albeit and a far, far slower rate). There were also 'soda straws' (again, those students were probably thirsty as well), tiny tube-shaped calcite stalactites that are hollow and allow water to flow through them. They occasionally fall off and stick up in the mud. There are also bizarre 'helictites'--squiggly rock formations of uncertain origin. Next were the tilted stalagmites, which are the result of extremely slow shifting of the ground. The 'broomstick' stalagmite is formed of calcite crystals.

Finally it was time for the highlight of the trip. We were led into a viewing area with benches, and were treated to a light show, complete with bizarre music, highlighting a massive, spectacular column called 'Khubla Khan', the king of 'Xanadu', from the Coleridge poem. I can only speculate how THESE names came about...

FIRST GUY: Duuuude, check out these CAVES, man! It's like...Xanadu...

SECOND GUY: (takes a pull on his joint) Whooaaaa...

FIRST GUY: Dude, then that big rock must be...must be...

SECOND GUY: Khubla....Khan...

FIRST GUY: Whooaaa....

With the conclusion of the light show, we exited the cave. Our trip to Kartchner Caverns State Park was without a doubt one of the highlights of the ELT trip to Arizona.

To Travelogue Contents