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Tag: cave tour

07 March 2011

Colossal Cave Mountain Park

First light from camp Colossal Cave Mountain Park Vail Arizona

Morning view from camp

Pulled into the Colossal Cave Mountain Park entrance just as they were closing at 5pm. But the lady at the gate took my $10 camping fee and radioed the guy at the campground gate not to close it as I was on my way.

View into valley where camp is from Visitor Center Colossal Cave Mountain Park Vail Arizona

Campground to left in valley

A beautiful and primitive campground, I believe I was the only person there except for a few employees.

Visitor Center Colossal Cave Mountain Park Vail Arizona

Visitor Center

The gate was reopened at 9am and I drove out of there and around a few miles to get to the cave opening and visitor center by 9:30. Only waited 30 minuets for a tour along with nine other people.

Map Colossal Cave Mountain Park Vail Arizona

Our guide, Adam, knew his stuff and talked about the geologic formation of the cave and the local history.

Colossal Cave Mountain Park Vail Arizona

Colossal is currently dormant, a dry cave with no new formations growing. After exceedingly heavy rain there is dripping in the cave.

Colossal Cave Mountain Park Vail Arizona

Scientists believe the Colossal Cave was formed about 10-15 million years ago as hot water filled with sulphuric acid welled up from below the ground dissolving the rock. Later, surface water seeped through cracks in the rock and left the formations like stalactites, stalagmites and flowstone.

Stalactites Colossal Cave Mountain Park Vail Arizona

Over two miles of cave have been explored and mapped extending 600 feet (182.88 m) into the mountain and 40 feet (12.19 m) below the main entrance.

Column Colossal Cave Mountain Park Vail Arizona

Archeological evidence of early native use by the Hohokam indicates the cave openings were used for shelter about 1100 years ago and there is still black soot on the entrance area ceiling from fires.

Visitor in passage Colossal Cave Mountain Park Vail Arizona

The cave was rediscovered in 1879 by Solomon Lick and was opened briefly for tours in 1917.

Flowstone Colossal Cave Mountain Park Vail Arizona

In 1905 a 75-foot (22.86 m) tunnel was excavated into the cave in order to mine bat guano.

Colossal Cave Mountain Park Vail Arizona

In 1922, Frank Schmidt filed mining claims on land occupied by the cave. He is responsible for the first extensive survey of the cave and traveled in it for six days before using up the food and water. Although Frank relinquished his lease to the State of Arizona in 1934, he continued to lead tours for many years.

Colossal Cave Mountain Park Vail Arizona

Then from 1934-36 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built trails, handrails and lighting in the cave and built the visitor center.

Colossal Cave Mountain Park Vail Arizona

Several movies have been made here, but the most notable is a Walt Disney Production The Outlaw Cats of Colossal Cave filmed in 1975.

Colossal Cave Mountain Park Vail Arizona

In 1992, Colossal Cave Mountain Park was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Today, over 2,000 acres include the cave and the working La Posta Quemanda Ranch, which I didn’t explore.

The cave is a balmy 70 degrees F (~20 C) and the tour lasted about an hour. Well worth it.

View back out of park Colossal Cave Mountain Park Vail Arizona

View back out of park

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Arizona, Colossal Cave Mountain Park cave tour, cultural history, natural history 11 Comments
06 January 2009

Oregon Caves tour (Part two)

For part one of the Oregon Caves tour click here.

Welcome back to Oregon Caves National Monument. If you didn’t leave the cave at the 110 exit then there’s about 400 more stairs to go. 

Cathedral Arch

Caves actually get more beautiful with age.

Banana Grove

Niagara Falls

Up until 1886 Niagara Falls was the end of the cave. Then one day Walter Burch felt a breeze and found a small hole which he enlarged. He had to crawl through in his longjohns to get through, pushing his clothes in front of him and carrying a candle for light.
Walter climbed about 30 feet down a rope and crawled through the “blow hole” ….

Blow hole passage. Big stalagmite called the wishing post was once rubbed by every visitor.

…and found himself in what is now called Miller’s Chapel.

Miller’s Chapel

Named after Joquin Miller, also known as the poet of the Sierras, who helped the cave become protected in 1909. The “Chapel” part, because of a wedding.

Historic photo from NPS archives

Time to move on to the largest room in the cave.

Leaving Miller’s Chapel

The Ghost Room

Welcome to the Ghost Room, the size of a football field. Sorry no ghosts. From here we’ll be making a side trip…

Stairs up to Paradise Lost

…climbing about 90 steps round trip. You can pass on this if you want, but….

Paradise Lost

From the Ghost Room floor we are about 150 feet underground. It’s all uphill from here for the rest of the Oregon Caves tour.

Angel Falls

Entering the Wedding Cake Room

We’re on the last leg of our journey and will be passing through more human blasted tunnels and natural cave.

Broken flowstone shows calcite crystal formation

Black bear bones

During reconstruction of the trail in 1998 black bear bones dating 3,000 years old were discovered. Many fossils of small animals have been found near cave openings. But the oldest bones belong to a 38,000 year old jaguar discovered not far from the Ghost Room in the early 1990s.

Exit tunnel and air-lock door

If we can just make it through this door we’ll see the light of day again.

Looking out cave exit

I’ll bet you figured we’d never make it out of the cave. We only saw about one third of the total cave, the rest requires much crawling and climbing. There’s three and a half miles of cave passages. So, do you want to go back in and crawl around?

Looking back at cave exit

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National Parks and Monuments, Oregon, Oregon Caves National Monument cave tour, Oregon, Oregon Caves National Monument, Park Ranger 9 Comments

Hi, I’m Gaelyn, the Geogypsy

I retired after 29 summer seasons as a Park Ranger, traveling solo for 40+ years. My passions include travel, connecting to nature, photography, and sharing stories.

I started exploring US National Parks in 1977 and 20 years later became a seasonal Park Ranger.  I’ve lived full-time in a RV for 30 years working summers and playing winters.  I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow old, other than grow up.

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