July 13-14, 2002

"Caving In"

With the forests still closed, John and I found that there wasn't much of a choice when trying to decide what to do during the weekend, to escape the heat of the Valley. Last weekend, just to get out of town, we went on a short road trip to Payson…just to have a picnic in a city park! Then, one day, John had an idea: we could make a day trip to Kartchner Caverns State Park! The caverns were discovered in November 1974 by a pair of college students - Gary Tenen and Randy Tufts - in the Whetstone Mountains, about twenty miles north of Sierra Vista. They kept the pristine caverns a secret for about fourteen years, at which time the state park system purchased them. Last year, the caverns were opened to public tours; however, the hype surrounding them was so grand that people had to make reservations to visit them several months in advance! But not during the summer. The summertime is considered their "off-season", which meant that getting a reservation was quite easy. When I called Kartchner Caverns State Park, I was able to make a reservation for Sunday, July 14 at 10:20 a.m. The plan at first was to do Kartchner Caverns as a day trip. However, when we mentioned the idea to John's parents, they offered to let us use their motor home, so that we could camp in comfort in the campground. (It would have been too hot for us to camp in the tent.) We gladly accepted their offer - after all, it was a chance for us to get away for the weekend! On Friday night, July 12, during a monsoon storm, John and I picked up the motor home from Bill and Erika, during which time we were given all of the necessary instructions on its operations. We also hooked up their Jeep Cherokee as a tow vehicle. They insisted that we use their Jeep and not ours, because our Grand Cherokee was a bear to tow (as we discovered when we tried to tow it to Rocky Point in April!) Their Jeep also had a towing package, unlike ours. Having completed the tour, we drove the motor home back to our house, where we loaded up all of our supplies for the weekend: food, clothes, hiking gear, and lots of toys for Mary. With all said and done, we were set to leave bright and early Saturday morning. It is said that getting there is half the adventure, and that was certainly the case on Saturday morning. Instead of driving to Kartchner non-stop and spending all day at the park, John and I decided to make the most of our journey. Our first stop was in Eloy, AZ, where John made one jump at Skydive Arizona. It was his first time he had jumped in three weeks. In June, John had undergone hernia surgery to repair an injury he received during the Arizona Challenge, when he was accidentally kicked in an unforgiving area. Initially, he was going to wait another week before jumping again, but since we were going to be in the area… Fortunately, the jump that he made that morning was pain-free, meaning that he had fully recovered from his surgery. As soon as his parachute was packed and stowed away in the motor home, we left Eloy and drove to Tucson. While in Tucson, we stopped to visit my mother and Ed; in fact, we parked all fifty feet of vehicle (motor home and tow vehicle) in front of their house! Can you imagine what their neighbors must have been thinking to see that behemoth parked on such a narrow residential street? We had a nice lunch with Mom and Ed at a little bakery/restaurant called Beyond Bread, on Campbell Avenue just south of Fort Lowell Road. It is one of those trendy little spots that opened up sometime during the last five years and is now quite popular among Tucsonans…and with good reason! The bread that they serve is fresh-baked and delicious, and their sandwiches are wonderful. After lunch, we dropped Mom and Ed off at their house and continued our road trip to Kartchner Caverns State Park. En route, Mary took a long nap in her car seat, which made for a very quiet and uneventful journey. To get to Kartchner Caverns from Tucson, we took I-10 East towards the town of Benson, at the junction of SR 90. From there, it was another nine miles on SR 90 to the entrance to park entrance, which is located on the right hand side of the road. Upon entering the park, we stopped at the pay station, where we paid $22 to camp overnight in the campground. We were also given detailed instructions about the park, including how to get in after hours, once the front gates are locked. As we drove into the park, we found the Discovery Center just off to the left and the campground a quarter of a mile beyond that. When we pulled into the campground, we discovered that there was only one other motor home parked there - it was definitely the off-season! We were free to choose any campsite we wanted. After driving around the campground two or three times, we eventually settled on the pull-through space that had the most shade. (Most of the other campsites had very young mesquite trees that did not provide much shade.) We spent a few minutes getting the motor home set up and the Jeep unhooked, and during that time, Mary awoke from her nap. We gave her a few moments to run around and play inside of the motor home before John suggested that we take a walk over to the Discovery Center. It was a quarter-mile walk from the campground to the Discovery Center. En route, we discovered several picnic ramadas and a trailhead that appeared to be closed due to construction. We also found the Hummingbird Garden, which is a scenic walk through a beautiful garden of desert foliage, in which several hummingbird feeders have been hung. As we passed through the gardens, we could hear the buzzing of wings as those tiny birds darted hither and yon, from one feeder to the next. It was quite peaceful… …until we heard the loud buzzing of aircraft passing overhead, at an altitude of about 3,000 feet! When we looked up, we saw a very large aircraft - possibly a slurry bomber - flying low over the Whetstone Mountains on its way to Fort Huachuca. "Wow!" we exclaimed. "Where did that plane come from?" After passing through the Hummingbird Gardens, we entered the Discovery Center. Inside, we found many educational exhibits pertaining to the caves and to the desert wildlife that inhabit the area. There was also a gift shop and an information desk at which there were several rangers on hand to answer questions and provide tickets to tour participants. We stopped there first to ask about the trails in the park. "We're sorry," the ranger replied, "but all of the trails are closed due to the extreme fire danger." That didn't surprise me; it was because of the extreme fire danger that we decided to go there! There was no other place to go but to the state parks…or at least the ones that were still open after the state budget cuts… So, instead of hiking, we decided to spend part of our afternoon in the air-conditioned Discovery Center, where we learned all about the caverns and the formations that we would find inside. Mary, in particular, was fascinated by the exhibits - specifically, the life-sized models of the tunnels through which the spelunkers had crawled when they discovered the caverns. Mary, of course, crawled back and forth through them with the greatest of ease, although John and I both managed to squeeze through them, too! (It helped that we had both lost twenty pounds recently!) While exploring the gift shop, though, we were once again reminded that the Terrible Two's would soon be upon us. Mary insisted on walking through the gift shop herself, because she wanted to touch everything in sight. At one point we lost track of her for two seconds, and that was all the time she needed to rip open a bag of rock candy! Needless to say, we had to pay for her misdeeds. (We also bought her a Kartchner Caverns T-shirt, with a glow-in-the-dark design on it.) We did let her have a few pieces of the candy, but in order to prevent her from eating the whole bag, we threw the rest away. (That was just too much sugar for her - she would have been too hyper!) She threw a temper tantrum about it on the way back to the campground, but in time she soon forgot about it and moved on. Once we were back at camp, we decided to relax a bit and let Mary play around (to work off that sugar-fix). That soon became boring, though, so John suggested that we take the Jeep out for a drive. Mary protested, but she stopped crying as soon as we left the park. Although we knew that we were going to be limited on our choices of four-wheel drive roads on which we could test drive the Verleys' Jeep, that didn't stop us from looking for one. We managed to find a few dirt roads off of Highway 90, so we chose one to see where we would end up. The road that we chose was perfect for a test drive. Parts of it were rocky and rutted and gave us just enough of a jostling to be fun. However, the fun didn't last long, because we soon came to the National Forest boundaries, where the roads were closed due to the extreme fire danger. At that point, the road forked; we continued off to the right, away from the national forest, but it wasn't long before we decided to turn around and head back to the main road. Upon returning from our little excursion, it was dinnertime. While John cooked steaks and potatoes, Mary and I watched Shrek (because we could - the motor home, of course, has a TV and a VCR). Then, while I did the dishes, John took Mary outside to run around in the cool evening air. Later, we spent the rest of the evening, relaxing in the comforts of the motor home until it was time for bed. The next morning, we awoke bright and early to a beautiful day. After we had breakfast and got dressed, I took Mary outside to let her run around the empty campground, to give John a chance to clean up the motor home a bit. Almost immediately, while my back was turned, Mary took off running! When I turned around again, she was already two campsites away from us. "Wow," I said to myself. "She's fast! Now I know why I hear so many stories about kids wandering off and getting lost in the woods!" For the next half-hour, Mary wandered around the campground, while I followed close behind with the video camera, taping her exploits. Eventually, I managed to "herd" her back towards our campsite, where John had just finished cleaning up and was ready to go. "I don't want to sit around the campground all morning," he said. It was only 8:00 a.m., and our tour didn't start until 10:30 - that gave us plenty of time to do a little exploring before we had to report to the visitor center for our tickets. "What shall we do?" I asked. "I've been looking at the map," he replied, "and I think we should take a drive over to the San Pedro Riparian Area. That's about twenty miles away. Maybe we can also go see the Presidio Santa Cruz Ruins. "That would be cool!" I said, so with that, we all got into the Jeep and started off on our exploration. To get to the San Pedro Riparian Area, we took SR 90 south to the town of Whetstone, about 10 miles south of the park. From there, we turned left onto SR 82 and drove for another ten miles until we came to the lush, green riparian area that surrounded the San Pedro River. We crossed the bridge that spanned the San Pedro River - as well as the San Pedro scenic railroad - and soon arrived at the BLM Visitor Center, where there were a number of nature trails that we could have hiked…had the riparian area been open to the public! Unfortunately, the Bureau of Land Management had recently decided to close most of its lands as well, due to the extreme fire danger. It didn't surprise us, though; it was only a matter of time before the BLM reacted to the extreme drought conditions. Upon leaving the visitor center, John and I went in search of the Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate Ruins, located off of Keller Road. We made the turn onto the dirt road and began looking for the ruins, but instead, we came to a trailhead…for a one-mile long trail leading to the ruins. What a perfect way to pass the morning…if only the trail had not been closed! Grumbling, John and I gave up on trying to explore the San Pedro Riparian Area. Instead, we spent some time driving along the primitive roads in the area - those which had not been closed by the BLM. Around 9:00 a.m., we decided that it was time to head back to Kartchner Caverns to get ready for our tour. Our tour began at 10:30 a.m., however, we were asked to arrive at the Discovery Center at least one hour before the start time in order to claim our tickets. (We had already paid for the tickets when I made the reservations.) Before driving to the visitor center, we stopped at the motor home so that we could lock up our valuables, because we would not be able to bring any of them with us on the tour. In fact, according to the tour instructions, we were not allowed to bring anything with us into the caverns - not even a stroller or a baby backpack for our child. These steps were taken to ensure that no one left anything behind in the caverns and to ensure that the internal environment of the caverns is preserved. We parked the Jeep at the Discovery Center and took a walk through the Hummingbird Garden on our way inside. While we were still outside, another airplane flew overhead at an altitude of about one thousand feet. From that distance, John could see that it was either a DC-4 or a DC-7 and that it appeared that it was being used as a slurry bomber. (Obviously, it was going to refuel at Fort Huachuca.) But if it was a slurry bomber, where was it dumping the slurry? Our question was answered as soon as we entered the Discovery Center and found a Tucson newspaper. On the front page, there was an article about the Oracle Fire, which was burning close to Catalina State Park in the town of Oracle, AZ (just north of Tucson). Now it all made sense! At 9:30, we claimed our tickets; after that, we spent the half-hour exploring in the Discovery Center. Once again, Mary enjoyed running around and crawling through the cavern models on display. It was best for her to get it out of her system now, because once the tour began, she would have to be on her best behavior, lest we be asked to leave the caverns if she became disruptive. (We had already been warned by the park ranger; we had no intention of letting that happen…but you never know…) At 10:00, our tour group was called out to the tram loading area, where we listened to a brief lecture about the discovery of the caverns. Our tour guide, Walt, explained to us that the caverns are a living ecosystem that depends on water to survive. In order to preserve that delicate system, he emphasized that we are not allowed to touch anything inside of the cave. The oils from our skin and the fibers from our clothing can foster the growth of bacteria in the cave - bacteria that can be harmful to the ecosystem within the cave. He explained that if, by chance, we accidentally touched something, to let him know so that he could mark the area with a tag, and precautions could be taken to ensure that the area is cleansed to prevent the growth of bacteria. At 10:30, our tram arrived to take us to the entrance of the caverns, inside of the Whetstone Mountains. En route, Walt showed us the only other known entrance into the caverns, the one in which Tenen and Tufts had first began their discovery of Kartchner Caverns. When the tram came to a stop, he showed us how the landscape of the mountains had provided those two college students with the clues needed to discover the caves. There were certain plants, for example, that thrived on the minerals found within the caves. Upon finding the initial entrance, the two spelunkers set off to see what they could find. Upon purchasing the land, the State Park system took the steps needed to open the caverns to the public, while at the same time preserving the fragile ecosystem inside. One of those steps was to install not one but three double doors, to keep the humidity inside and the dry air outside. We passed through the first set of double doors at the very beginning of the trail, and we passed through the second set as we entered the caverns. The tour was an hour long (including the tram ride) through a third of a mile of dark caverns that are dimly-lit only as the tour group passes through. The temperature inside is 68 degrees year-round, with 99% humidity - a factor that has caused many people to abort their tours early, as the humidity can make it hard for some people to breathe. It even took me a moment or two to adjust to the high humidity, but in time, it wasn't so bad. However, as I walked through the caverns, I began to sweat profusely! Upon passing through the second set of double doors, we came into the first room of the caverns, at an area where the first intrepid spelunkers had stopped to rest…and to clean the mud off of their clothes and shoes before continuing their exploration. They had each gained twenty-five pounds in mud as they made their way through the caves! (I know how they must have felt: I felt the same way after hiking Paria Canyon!) To mark the spot where they had rested, the park service had installed a round platform, on which the tour group can spread out and admire the surroundings. As the different areas became lighted, we could see the beautiful stalactites and stalagmites, in every shape and size, damp and glistening in shades of peach, pink and brown. I, like the others in our tour group, stared at them in awed silence. This was the last opportunity that Mary had to run around. While we were on the round platform, she wasn't able to touch anything, so we put her down and let her walk on her own. I was certain that she was going to be scared of the darkness inside of the cave, but instead she reacted with fascination! She, too, must have noticed how beautiful the caverns were, for she began to point at the various formations and babble nonsensically in a loud but happy voice. As the tour continued, John and I took turns carrying her to ensure that she didn't touch anything. At that point, the trail proceeded downwards, towards what is called the Mud Room: a vast field of mud, through which Tenen and Tufts had traveled in their exploration of the caverns. In fact, their footprints - and only their footprints - can still be seen snaking through the mud, under a forest of soda straw stalactites. Upon leaving the Mud Room, our tour guide took us through some narrow passageways, where we saw some very interesting formations, including cave bacon, fried egg stalagmites, milk-white calcium deposits, and stalagmites and stalactites of every shape and size, for example more soda straws. (The names of the various formations prompted one person on our tour to ask, "So why is everything named after food?") Everything we saw was wonderful and beautiful; even Mary was excited by the cave formations! We had feared that she would be scared of the dark, but instead, she continued to point at everything in sight and provide her loud, and often unintelligible, commentary. At the end of the tour, we came to the final exhibit: Kubla Khan, a giant 200,000 stalagmite that spanned ceiling to floor. To view Kubla Khan, the tour group was seated on a group of benches, arranged like an auditorium. The tour guide then turned off all of the lights and began the presentation, which consisted of Native American/New Age music and clever lighting. It was quite serene…with the exception of a few excited squeals from Mary! Immediately after the presentation of Kubla Khan, the tour moved towards the last set of double doors and back into the man-made hallways to complete the loop. Finally, we exited the caverns through the first set of double doors and stepped back out into the Arizona heat. Our tour guide warned us that we would all feel a little bit chilled as we did so, because the humidity inside of the cave had caused us to sweat a great deal. That sweat had turned us all into walking evaporative coolers. It was certainly a pleasant feeling to walk out into the sunshine like that, and it made the tram ride back to the Discovery Center bearable. Having successfully completed our tour of Kartchner Caverns, it was time for us to go home. We drove back to the campground and began to prepare the motor home and the tow Jeep for the long trip back to Phoenix. Once the slide-out was pulled back in and the jacks had been retracted, John gave me a lesson on how to drive a motor home, for it was my turn to drive! Now, I had never driven anything that big before. The biggest thing I had ever driven was a moving truck from Tucson to Phoenix, and I handled that very well. The motor home was much bigger and much more difficult to drive. However, with John's guidance, I was able to pull the motor home out of the campsite and out of the campground…and I successfully pulled it into the dump station! Then came the big test: driving it on the open highway. Upon exiting the park, I turned left onto Highway 90 and drove the motor home nine miles to Benson. It was difficult to stay in the lane, but I did manage to drive us all the way there without any trouble! From there, John took over, because I just wasn't comfortable driving the motor home on the interstate. He said that he understood and that at least I had had a chance to do it. The rest of the trip home didn't pass without event, for we got stuck in traffic for about forty-five minutes halfway in between Benson and Tucson. There was a line of cars backed up for miles as the result of a bad accident involving a sports car, a pick-up truck and a semi. We aren't sure what happened, but it looked like the semi truck dropped its transmission, causing the other two cars to crash. At any rate, it was quite frustrating for us - especially to Mary, who was still strapped into her car seat. I eventually had to let her out so that she could stop whining. Once we got moving again, we put her back into her car seat, where she took a short nap. We finally arrived in Phoenix around 3:00 p.m. After dropping the motor home off at Bill and Erika's house, we all went home and relaxed for the evening.

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