Kartchner Caverns State Park

Today we went to Kartchner Caverns State Park, part of Arizona's state park system. I was a bit nervous about the whole thing -- especially since we had signed up for two 1 1/2 hour tours. I'd never been underground before and wasn't at all sure that I would be okay with it.

The rangers are very consientious about protecting the cave -- you are NOT allowed to even take a camera into the cave -- absolutely NO pictures! So you'll have to settle for the postcard I scanned tonight. In fact, you cannot take purses, backpacks, strollers, water bottles, food or anything else in with you! If you wear a jacket ('cause it was chilly outside and you take an open electric train about a 1/4 mile up to the cave entrance), you have to roll it up so that there is nothing flapping and tie it around your waist by the sleeves when you go inside.

The cavern is about 72 degrees year around, but the humidity is 98% inside so it feels like it's about 80 degrees. You go through three sealed compartments, each with a heavy door, before you actually get into the cavern. In one of the compartments, you walk through a light mist that helps to keep lint from your clothes or hair from sloughing off in the cave. You are instructed to stay on the ramp and only touch the hand rail. Every night they wash down the ramps so that any foreign objects from clothes or shoes is washed into special tanks.

There are two tours, one goes into the part of the cave they call the Rotunda and the second goes into another section that they call the Big Room. As huge as these two areas are, they are still only estimated to be about 20% of the cave. The Big Room is only open for tours during the winter; they close it during the summer when the bats return and use it for a maternity ward.

After going on the first tour, I could hardly wait for the second! What a dramatic and exciting place. It becomes very evident that all of God's wonders are not just above the earth!

The first part of the first tour was a bit scary as my glasses took a while to lose the darkening from the bright sunlight outside -- and then they fogged up from the humidity in the cavern! I was very glad to have Forry to hang on to! Once I was able to see clearly, I was too fascinated by the features of the cave to be concerned about being underground. The formation, Kubla Khan, on the postcard above is as tall as a five story building!

This will certainly not be the last cave we explore!