Kartchner Caverns, Benson, Arizona

The Arizona State Park System is doing an extraordinary job, as far as I can tell. Today I took my fourth grade class to visit Kartchner Caverns just south of Benson in southern Arizona. It was an amazing -- and outstanding -- experience for all of us. A real treat.

There are two different tours available, we took the Rotunda/Throne Room tour. After an interesting glimpse of history and animal life at the Discovery Center (darn, the video was on the blink) and some crawling through three simulations of cave entrances, we embarked on a short tram ride up to the entrance to the cave.


Once there, we entered a series of airtight doors, walking in amazement through a long, winding corridor that has been dynamited through the mountain. The humidity is amazingly high - 99% - my glasses kept steaming up. And then we got into the cave itself. It's a wonder. A real wonder. Back in ...1974ish....two twenty-something spelunkers climbed down into a sinkhole in the middle of the desert and discovered it. They knew enough to be really careful, so that even the originial tracks through the mud at the very bottom of the cave are the ones they retraced every time.

This is a "wet" cave, still alive. That means it's still forming its steleothems - stalactites and stalagmites and soda straws, bacon, drapery, popcorn - so many different kinds of formations. At the end of the tour you sit in an area looking down into the "Throne Room" and watch a slow, careful light show along with some beautiful music. Breathtaking. Every one of the kids was impressed.

I'm going back - soon. I want to take the second tour, the one of the "Big Room." Kartchner Caverns Tenth Anniversary is this weekend - what a phenominal, environmentally sound excursion they have created for the populace. An incredible treat.