As our guide pointed out the slabs of bacon, perfectly fried eggs, turnips, clumps of popcorn, jumbo scallops and strands of fettuccini scattered around, my youngest son exclaimed, "I'm getting real hungry, Mom!"
It might have been easy to appease his hunger had we been near a diner or café. But we were far from any eating establishment. Anyway, I knew my son's comment was a direct attempt at humor, made in reference to the amazing formations surrounding us in Arizona's Kartchner Caverns.
A recent trip to Tucson to visit family had brought us on this extraordinary journey underground to one of nature's unique creations. Kartchner Caverns is one of the top 10 mineral caves in the world. Located an hour southeast of Tucson, its existence remained a well-kept secret for 14 years until it became a state park in 1988.
Its discovery dates back to 1974 when two young cavers, Gary Tenen and Randy Tufts, were exploring the limestone hills at the base of the Whetstone Mountains. They spotted a sinkhole and, after further investi-gation, found a narrow crack leading into the hillside. Warm, moist air flowed out, signaling the existence of a cave. After crawling for several hours, the pair entered a pristine cavern. For the next four years, they spent much of their free time exploring the cave, and it wasn't until February 1978 that they told the property owners, James and Lois Kartchner, about their incredible find.
So much for the discovery. The development of the caverns date back 200,000 years ago, when nature began shaping its formations and creating its beautiful decorations, called speleo-thems. Today, these formations are still growing, which puts Kartchner in the category of a "living" cave.
There are two tours that take visitors into separate sections of the caverns: the Rotunda/Throne Room Tour and the Big Room Tour. Our group targeted the Big Room, an area only recently opened for public viewing. I couldn't help but feel, as I followed our guide around, that I was on another planet and having an out-of-this-world experience.
I was surrounded by dripping soda-straw stalactites hanging from the ceiling and tall, pointy stalagmites that appeared as towers out of "The Lord of the Rings." Forests of broomstick stalagmites seemed to sprout from nowhere, and coral pipes led like tunnels through a maze of corridors. In the Strawberry Room, with its red floors and walls (caused by iron oxide mixing with the soil), all the formations seemed on fire. As for the food-related speleothems, they were all aptly named: scooped-out formations with ridges really did look like scallops, and blistery bumps on stalactites reminded me of popcorn. Hollow bulbs with soda straws inside appeared as turnips, and the waxy, rippling structures bore an uncanny resemblance to bacon. My favorites were the helictites, which grew in all different directions and thus were referred to as "wayward fettuccini."
Kartchner Caverns is also a treasure house of information on the local fossil history of the uplands around the San Pedro River Valley. While exploring the cave, paleontologists uncovered skeletons of an 80,000-year-old Shasta ground sloth, a 34,000-year-old horse and an 11,000-year-old bear, in addition to those of other, smaller species. Our guide pointed out the skeleton of a bat covered in calcite and several piles of bat guano. He explained that during the summer months the Big Room serves as a nursery roost for more than 1,000 female cave bats. The pregnant females arrive from Mexico around the end of April, and each gives birth to a single female pup in late July. Mothers and offspring leave in mid-September to begin their migration back to Mexico for winter hibernation.
Touring Kartchner is a journey of discovery full of breathtaking wonders that are beyond one's imagination. As we came up and out of the caves, we squinted at the blazing sun and bright blue sky. Daylight seemed alien after two hours down in the depths of Middle Earth.
We remained aboveground just long enough to grab lunch and stroll the quaint streets of Bisbee, a picturesque, historic Old West town south of Kartchner, nestled in the mile-high Mule Mountains, before heading underground once again. This time it was to visit the Copper Queen Mine, Bisbee's claim to fame. Outfitted in screaming yellow jackets and hardhats and equipped with battery packs and flashlights, we straddled seats on a "man-cart," a small train that would take us into the depths of the mine. Now inactive, the Copper Queen was once one of the richest mineral sites in the world. The mine shut down in 1975 and later reopened for tours.
As we headed through narrow tunnels and dark, cool passageways, our guide regaled us with a colorful narration of the place's history, showed us the types of machinery and explained about the methods used in mining; he also provided our group with numerous details about the harsh life of a miner. By the time we exited, I was more than ready to see the light of day and relieved to know I would never have to actually work in such an environment. My older son seemed to feel the same way and commented, "Well, Mom, I think I can cross 'miner' off my career inventory!"
OPTING TO SPEND the rest of our vacation enjoying Arizona's great outdoors, we headed north towards the Grand Canyon, stopping for lunch in Sedona to gaze at the dramatic red monoliths that have made this place a must-see destination on every tourist's list. Two hours later, we arrived at the canyon's South Rim just in time to savor a spectacular sunset that seemed to light the rocks on fire with vivid streaks of color.
Our room for the night was at El Tovar Hotel, located right on the canyon's rim, with picture-perfect views of this vast natural wonder. Made of native stone and Oregon pine and fashioned after hunting lodges in Europe, the hotel is an architectural crown jewel that complements the geologic wonder of the canyon. Its dining room is well known for fine regional cuisine, and I can attest to its palate-pleasing dishes. Our dinner was a memorable feast for the senses.
The next day we set aside to explore the canyon, using the Bright Angel Trail, one of two routes that descend from the South Rim to the Colorado River. Our goal was not to reach the river - a feat in itself that requires much stamina and time (neither of which we had an overabundance of) - but rather to get a perspective of the canyon from within its walls. The trail was snow-packed in places and had patches of ice, which made it a bit tricky to navigate, es-pecially without the icy crampons that other hikers all seemed to be wearing. We slipped and slid our way for about a mile and a half down, all the while savoring the canyon's eye-candy array of reds, greens, golds and purples. The gorge's colors all seemed brighter against a palate-cleansing white frame of snow.
When we would stop to catch our breath, we stood relishing the quiet and solitude of the place. Due to the fact that it was February, a time of year when tourists normally don't flock to the canyon, we had the place mostly to ourselves. We were in awe of this great chasm and impressed with the visual impact of the landscape. Even my normally gregarious sons were silent in the face of such an overwhelming example of nature's power and beauty.
From the depths of the caverns at Kartchner to the dramatic red rocks of Sedona and the vast magnifi-cence of the Grand Canyon, Arizona is truly a land to humble the soul.
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