Kartchner Caverns State Park is really quite interesting and is well worth the cost of the tours and the effort of making the required reservations. It’s relatively new to the state park system. The caverns were discovered by a couple of cavers from Tucson in 1974 and kept secret for several years while they further explored them. They realized if they made their discovery public the fragile ecology of the caves would be destroyed in no time at all. In 1978 they shared their discovery with the Kartchner family who owned the land, and who joined the two in its exploration. Still keeping it’s location a secret, it wasn’t until 1998 that the land was purchased to be carefully developed as an Arizona State Park, making it accessible to the public while protecting it from that same public. They have done a smash-up job of it, too. The caves are continuously monitored to ensure their health and great lengths are taken to maintain the integrity of the ecosystem found there. The park is totally geared toward the caverns—as it should be—with tours every 15 or 10 minutes though the day to one of two major caves…the Throne Room and the Big Room. The Throne Room tour is available all year long but the Big Room is only available to the public during the winter months, as it is the breeding place for the local bat population. Both are spectacular. There is an impressive visitor’s center with educational displays, a short video presentation about the caverns’ discovery and development, a gift shop, and the boarding point for the trams that take visitors to the cave entrances. From there it is on foot, with the caves being accessed through a series of man-made air locks that control the preservation of the humidity, temperature, and quality of the air inside the caverns. Even the lights are controlled so that they go on and off as you pass through various areas so as to keep down the amount of photosynthesis that takes place in the caves. They don’t want anything growing in there that isn’t supposed to be. Visitors are not allowed to take anything in with them (no purses, water bottles, bags, cameras, baby strollers…not even children under 6 in the Big Room…nothing other than the clothes on their backs). Nor are they allowed to touch anything inside the caverns aside from the handrails and the paved footpath. Crews come in daily after the last tour is completed to disinfect the handrails and paths…so that bacteria and fungi growth are controlled. The tour guides instill a stern sense of uncertain fate should one step outside the rules of the tour. They take thier jobs very seriously…but once you are inside you understand the rationale and are more forgiving of the guides’ emphatic orders of conduct. Once inside, it is quite humbling to witness the quiet beauty created over eons by the simple action of seeping water. Although it would no doubt be a wonderful sensation, one feels unworthy of touching anything. One striking thing we noticed was the stillness and silence, save for the hollow echoing of water slowly dripping from a stalactite here and there… something that has been going on for centuries. It makes you want to just be quiet and observe the silence. No cameras are allowed, of course, so we can’t show you any of the glory found inside...so you’ll just have to go there and see for yourself. The grounds of the park are very nice…there are large parking lots to accommodate the constant flow of day-trip folks…with an almost constant influx of new visitors to the Discovery Center… There is a very nice specimen garden at the entrance to the Center with benches sprinkled about. Out beyond the parking lots are several sheltered picnic areas where visitors can enjoy the desert with their picnics… An access bridge over a shallow wash leads to two loops of RV sites with electricity and water. The RV area is fairly sheltered from the parking areas, which is nice. The entire grounds are covered with wonderfully knarly mesquite trees…it’s almost orchard-like and looks like the trees could have been planted, but somehow we think not. There are a couple of hiking trails to take into the hills above the campground as well… While we were there it was warm during the days, then at sunset the breeze coming down from the mountains would stiffen and as soon as the sun went behind the highest crest, the chill hit. Wood ground fires and charcoal grill fires are not allowed, so once it begins to cool off, it’s an indoors kinda campground, at least at this time of year. We stuck around the campground Sunday, as our tour was scheduled for 3:20 pm… We headed over to the Discovery Center about an hour ahead of time, which they recommend so you have time to watch the video and go through the displays before your tour. And oh yes, the gift shop…of course. We didn’t buy anything, but we did see some metal yard art by an Arizona artist named Henry Dupere…we happen to have several pieces of his in our yard…wonderful creations. Our favorite are the bats hanging upside down…with their wings folded around themselves and their steel ball-bearing eyes. Cool stuff. But the gift shop is not the place to buy them! We enjoyed the tour a lot and were glad we did it late in the day. I think there were only one or maybe two more tours later than ours…coming out of the caves we were chilled having been in 98% humidity for over an hour…I put my over shirt back on at that point. Of course, the Girls were ever-so glad to see us when we got back to the campsite…they always act like we’ve been gone for days when we’ve only been out a couple of hours. We know they just sleep while we’re gone…so you’d think time would fly. Thankfully, they are not destructive when we are gone and never bother anything they shouldn’t. They are such “Good Girls,” which we constantly point out to them. Since it was Sunday, the campground had thinned out considerably…felt a bit lonely after having been completely full for the weekend… Most folks were there only two or maybe three nights…except those like us who were using it as a base camp for other adventures. The night turned windy and cool again…would it every be warm in the evening? Click on the slide show button below to see pictures of this segment, or click on any one of the other segments of this trip...or you can click on “Other Trips” at the end of the pics to take you to our main trip page. Hope you enjoy... http://www.pr.state.az.us/Parks/parkhtml/kartchner.htmlshapeimage_7_link_0
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