Kartchner Caverns State Park

 I have a bit of catching up to do!

First, thanks to all of you who responded to my links question. Enough of you do click through that I will keep them. Thanks!

Before we departed from Beth, Aaron and Sierra Vista on Monday, we went to Coronado National Memorial - named for the explorer who passed through the area in the mid-1500's while looking for the famed golden cities. Of course he did not find them and caused a lot of death and destruction. 

There's an unimproved cave on the Memorial, which we hiked up to but did not go into. Then went up a really rough road to the top of the peak. Rather than going back down that way, we went around another way - much longer but an adventure nevertheless. 

Cave into

Cave mouth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Sunday, we attended one of the weekly performances at the Arizona Folklore Preserve. If I lived here I would go to these every week!  There are shows 44 weekends a year, they only stop in July and August. It is a partnership with Arizona State University, and it mostly staffed by volunteers. Super cool place. This is Randy Huston, who put on an excellent, interesting and funny performance.

 

On Monday, we packed up and departed Sierra Vista for Kartchner Caverns State Park. This state park is only about 35 miles from Sierra Vista, so not a far trip for us. There is indeed a cavern on the property, with an interesting history. Two young geology students were exploring a local sink hole in the mid 1970's and spelunked into this cavern. They kept it a secret for a couple of years, exploring it on their own. They then let the landowners know about it, and brought them into the cavern as well. The family kept it secret for another 10 years! Finally, the family (not surprisingly named Kartchner) sold the cavern to the state, and the State Park was established. It took another 5 years or so to make the cave accessible to the public, with a visitor center, entrance-ways and walking paths. 

Anemone blooming on the trail

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kartchner hills

Little alpine ferns

Mountain Bluebird all over, Almost indigo

 

 

 

 

 

This is a "live cave" meaning it is still forming, still has water running through it. There is also a Common Cave Bat colony who uses this cave as their nursery, so the cave closes for tours from mid-April to mid-Oct for bat-rearing season. They are very careful about not bringing in white nose fungus, which is affecting a lot of bat populations across the country You cannot bring in anything with you - no phone, no bags, nothing. No photos or video allowed either, so no pics. Tour guides are volunteers, and ours was terrific. Very interesting to learn the history and about how they are conserving the bat colony and surrounding area.

There's also several miles of hiking trails up and around the hills and draws. We took a seven mile hike one day, along Guindani wash, which we crossed many times on the trail. Really nice to be walking along a draw that actually has water in it!

 

On Wednesday night into Thursday, we had a snow storm. Yup! About 2" and down to 25°. In Sierra Vista, Ft. Huachuca was closed, as were schools. There is no snow clearing equipment at all here so just have to wait until it melts, which it did pretty quickly. This was the morning we had our cave tour. The cave is a steady 70° and 90% humidity so it was a big change from outdoors!

1 1/2-2"

Can't quite see the hills

 

 

 

 

 

 

By afternoon it was all gone

Apparently this is one of the coolest winters on record for southern AZ. Figures, we leave NY where it is a warm winter to come here. Oh well - we are still enjoying ourselves!

If you are ever near Benson, AZ, eat at Mi Casa! Tiny place with maybe 10 tables but great food for a great price and really amazing desserts. Yum!

Friday we took a drive to the Cochise Stronghold, in the Dragoon mountains, where Cochise led his band in winter and where he was able to hide out from Mexican and US soldiers for a while until he and his band were captured. It is a beautiful location with live oak, pinion and spruce trees, and a running stream, quite full from the recent snows.

We have a two more days here and then we move north of Phoenix to
Homolovi State Park and Hopi Territory. We are really hoping it will not be much colder than we are here but we shall see. 

Stats for Kartchner Caverns - 7 nights with water and electric is $233, so $33 a night. That's a lot for a state park. They do not give a discount for the Golden Age pass. Good bathrooms, sort of heated, nice hot shower. Nicely laid out park.