Spelunking in the Grand Canyon Caverns!

As we mapped our route north from Phoenix toward our ultimate destination of Alaska this season, the first stop we stumbled on was the Grand Canyon Caverns.  Located south of the west end of the Grand Canyon on Historic Route 66 just outside the Hualapai Indian Reservation, the Caverns have been a tourist attraction since the 1920's.

The Caverns were discovered in 1927 by Walter Peck.  He purchased the property thinking that the gold, silver, diamonds and other precious minerals he thought were accessible in the Caverns would make him rich. However, once he started digging, he discovered to his dismay that the "gold" was merely iron oxide, the "silver" was a tin alloy, and the "diamonds" were a soft crystal that collapsed into powder when handled.

Crestfallen, he devised another scheme to make money:  he would offer people tours of the Caverns for a small fee.  More about that later.

The caverns are more than 300 feet underground, accessible by an elevator, and the major accessible chambers span over 2400 feet in length.  More chambers and tunnels are being discovered every year through efforts of geology students and local universities.

We had our choice between a relatively benign walk through the cavern on paved paths, or an "Explorer" version of the tour which offered us opportunities to get down and dirty and crawl and climb deeper into some of the tunnels.  Of course, we picked the spelunking version!

Our guide was an experienced young man named David.  Here, Kathy and our guide David pause at the entrance to the first large chamber -- the Chapel of the Ages (more about that later, as well):

In the photo above, and in other photos below, you'll see mysterious snowflake-like white dots.  These appear in the flash photos, because our flash would light up the dust motes kicked up into the air by our passing feet.  The dust motes, along with the color-draining effects of the flash in pitch-black darkness, make for some spooky shots.

David didn't waste any time introducing us to the more adventurous aspects of our tour.  He offered us a chance to climb down about 30 feet toward one of the many subterranean watercourses that still run under the caverns.  Here, (our) David (you can make out his helmet in the bottom of this photo, which Kathy took looking straight down from above the fence on the right) climbs down toward the base of this vertical tunnel:

 

Having tested our mettle with our first spelunking detour, David showed us one of the few Helictites (a rare form of Selenite crystal) that remain in the Caverns today:

 

How helictites form is still unknown; they are most likely the result of capillary forces acting on tiny water droplets, a force often strong enough at this scale to defy gravity.  If the helictite has a very thin central tube where the water flows like it does in straws, capillary forces would be able to transport water against gravity, enabling the hollow tube to extend upward and around instead of down.

When the Caverns were first discovered, there were many of these curving, hollow, tubular crystals, but the ravages of manhandling tourists destroyed almost all of them.  This one is protected by a glass barrier that prevents curious tourists from breaking the fragile crystal.

The Caverns were constructed naturally by water flowing through limestone and eroding it from the surrounding rock.  While they were at one time filled with water, the water drained as the land containing the Caverns was uplifted.  Once the Caverns were raised above the normal water table, further seepage of water and deposits of limestone were limited.  As a result, the Caverns are dry (no pooling water), and they have no stalactites or stalagmites.

A number of other things were deposited in the Caverns over the eons.  Prior to the Caverns' improvement in 1962, the owner discovered a skeleton which he originally interpreted to be a dinosaur fossil.  As a result, he named the Caverns, "Dinosaur Caverns," which is the name they had until recent years.  Only when the University of Arizona became involved did it become apparent that the fossilized skeleton was not a dinosaur, but an ancient giant sloth.  The owner donated the skeleton to the university's museum, and in exchange the museum exchanged a life-size reproduction of the sloth as it would have appeared in life:

 

The reproduction has been installed in the place where the skeleton was discovered.  On the walls next to the model, claw marks can still be seen on the cavern walls where the poor slot tried to climb the sheer rock in an unsuccessful escape attempt.  In fact, one of the sloth's giant claws was found, still embedded in the rock wall. Apparently, the unfortunate sloth fell into a hole in the top of the Caverns and died inside, leaving its bones for humans to discover thousands of years hence.

Prior to the installation of the elevator and other major improvements in 1962, the original owner lowered visitors down a rope into the Caverns.  From time to time, he would forget he had left the unfortunate souls down in the caves and would fail to pull them back up until they had spent a very uncomfortable night in the pitch-black depths.  However, when Hoover Dam had been built locally, in 1932, wood left over from the scaffolding used in the dam construction was available, and the owner scavenged some of it to create a stairs and cable-suspension bridge from the original entrance, which visitors could negotiate to descend into the Caverns.  While that original entrance has now been sealed, the original stairs and bridge remain, as strong as ever:

 

We had a chance to climb them up toward the original Caverns entrance.  Here, David peers down from the highest point we could go before reaching the sealed entrance:

Below, Kathy models the suspended stairs:

 

In the 1960's, the Caverns were designated an official Atomic Bomb Shelter for a region comprising about a 60-mile radius around the Caverns.  The U.S. Government stocked the Caverns with black barrels of water, cases of nonperishable food, and cardboard canisters which were to be used to hold human waste.  The supplies were said to be sufficient to support 2,000 people for 2 weeks (obviously, as we know today, that would not allow enough time for radioactive fallout to dissipate).  All of those provisions are still in the Caverns:

Interestingly, the Caverns still have the official shelter designation, and were recently restocked with fresh water, MRE rations and other supplies.  The old stuff still remains, but the old water is unpotable, although the food is still edible (or so the officials say).

There were numerous stops where we could climb up and explore or peer into side tunnels.  Here, Kathy stands near a tunnel entrance:

 

In the category of "things left in the Caverns," our guide also showed us the mummified remains of a bobcat that was estimated to have fallen into the Caverns around 1850.  It died in the Caverns of dehydration, being unable to find its way out.  Once it was discovered, much of its fur was lost because of handling by the workers who discovered it, but the cat itself was gently deposited in this alcove to protect it and make it available for curious tourists to examine it visually:

 

One interesting section of the Caverns is known as "Snowball Palace":

 

These light-colored, puffy "snowballs" are actually acretions of lime deposited on the walls of the Caverns by mineral laden water from eroding limestone that seeped into the Caverns over the many years when this portion of the Caverns was still moist and perhaps the waters in the Caverns were still receding.  The "snowballs" are very fragile, and we saw many that had been rubbed down and stained by people's hands over the years before the Caverns owner took steps to prevent people from touching the formations.

One of the most interesting side trips we took was to explore the "Mystery Room," which is a large hall filled with rock rubble on the floor.  The Mystery Room is where air leaves the Caverns.  Caverns legends say that smoke bombs were set off in the Mystery Room when the elevator was installed, to try to determine where the air finally exited the caverns after leaving the Mystery Room.  The legend has it that the smoke was detected leaving the ground near Havasu Falls -- nearly 40 miles away!  Science tells us that smoke could never travel that far without dissipating, but it is a great story.  Where the air exits the Caverns has yet to be discovered.

This photo shows the entrance to the Mystery Room.  Our guide David's headlamp is the bright light shining toward the camera:

 

We walked quite some way into the depths of the Mystery Room.  Here, Kathy and our guide David are moving into a more constricted section of the side chamber.  This photo was taken with a flash (as you can tell from the shining dust motes floating in the air):

 

Below is the same view, taken without a flash.  This non-flash version doesn't have such a spooky, color-drained look.  The colors are approximately what we saw with our natural eyes.  Note the absence of shining dust motes.  The dust was in the air, but just not visible:

 

Eventually, the tunnel into which the Mystery Room narrowed became barely wide enough for us to climb through.  Eventually, it turned vertical, and we had to climb about 20 feet up into another large chamber.  In the photo below, Kathy's head is just popping up into the upper chamber from the vertical shaft.  Our guide David is sitting to the left:

 

The Mystery Room adventure was just too much for Kathy.  Here, you can see she has collapsed on her way back out, coincidentally at the same place as the skeletons of some other unfortunate spelunkers fell next to the entrance sign.  Luckily, we were able to revive Kathy, and she soldiered on:

 

Our last stop in the tour was the Chapel of the Ages, which has been the site of many underground weddings.  We decided we should demonstrate how it works, and our guide obliged us with a "cave wedding" photo:

 

You can't imagine how dusty the caves were, being dry caves.  As we returned to the surface, we were covered with dust.  Here, David warms himself by a wood stove that was lit to take the edge off the 39F weather outside:

"THE END"