In traveling across the U.S. we
have found that it is almost impossible to see everything in some
areas. One of these examples is San Antonio. We had met up with
our Field Editor, Lynn Davis and his lovely wife, Sue, in
Harlingen, at a Y2K rally sponsored by RV America. We told Sue
and Lynn that after the rally we wanted to travel together to San
Antonio because we wanted to be able to show them around there.
We showed them the standard things that you would see in San
Antonio, such as the Tower of the Americas, and the Riverwalk.
Then, as we oftentimes do, we looked around and found new and
undiscovered things that we missed our last time around. One of
these was the Natural Bridge Caverns. We got the directions, and
off we went in search of a new story about San Antonio. When the
average person thinks of Texas you think of Big, Sandy, and Flat.
Well, a good deal of Texas is like that. But in this particular
section of Texas (called "Hill Country") they also had
caves. I wouldn't say that the Natural Bridge Caverns were quite
on the scale of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, but for anyone who has
never been in caves before they were quite impressive.
Unfortunately we were not able to convince Sue that going
underground in some drafty, dark caves would be fun, but we were
able to talk Lynn into going along as driver and assistant
photographer. Some of the shots in this story were taken with his
camera. As we pulled into the parking lot we saw a nice area set
up for picnics for families. One area was a playground for
children and had statues of Dinosaurs. The one was of a baby dino
just hatching out of its egg. I had to go say "Hi" to
the little fellow he was just too cute.
Just to give you a little background on the caves we found out
that they were discovered in March 27, 1960 by four college
students from St. Mary's University, San Antonio. They were named
for the rock bridge that forms the entrance. It was dedicated on
August 5, 1964 by Governor John Connally. The cave is of the
early Cretaceous Age: still forming. It is the site of artifacts
from 5000 B.C. , and human remains at least 8000 years old, also
Indian campsites.
We got to the visitors center and purchased our tickets. Shortly
after that we got to meet our tour guide, Sarah
Shodrock. Sarah gave us the usual welcome speech along with a
request to be sure and not touch the sides of the cave as the oil
from our hands would cause the cave to stop "growing".
She showed us examples of where the bats had been some thousands
of years ago, and how the Stalactites had stopped growing in the
area where the bats had roosted. I have always had problems
remembering which were stalactites and which were stalagmites.
Well, Sarah solved that problem for me for good. She told us that
the ones hanging down from the ceiling were stalactites (they had
to hang on tight to stay
up), and the ones coming up from the floor were Stalagmites (they
might reach the ceiling
someday). Cute huh? There were about 25 people in the
group that we were in. (Folks, I do want to mention that the
pictures we have inside the cave were taken by Sony Mavica
digital cameras, which we then digitally enhanced to bring up the
light. So when you see these pictures, please don't jab your
significant other in the ribs going, "Why can't we get
pictures like those." We have put a lot of time and effort
into getting just the right equipment and then enhancing them so
that we can bring you pictures you will enjoy and can recognize.
)
The walk, which is around 3/4 a mile in length and about 200 feet
deep, was a bit grueling at times. Either straight down or
straight up. The walkway was
often wet and the water which fortunately is 99 percent pure,
dripped from the ceiling and into everybody's hair. Some of the
passageways were quite narrow while other parts were huge rooms
filled with limestone columns created thousands of years ago by
the steady dripping of water from the ceiling. The temperature
was reported to be 70 degrees but with a 99 percent humidity, the
effect was that of around 85 degrees. By the time we got out we
were soaked through, from the humidity, not the water dripping
from the ceiling.
One of the things you have to remember is that you can surprise
all sorts of strange creatures inside these caverns, so you have
to be very careful as you go around corners. (Just kidding
Sweetie-this of course is my beloved hubby, Bob.)
All in all, it was well worth the effort. As you
exited the tour there was, of course, the usual snack shop and
gift shop. In the gift shop they had bags of dirt that you could
buy and then go outside to their old time sluice operating in the
side yard and sift the dirt with the water running through the
sluice. Lynn bought a bag of dirt and allowed me to have the fun
sifting. Of course he said I could keep anything I found (unless
it was valuable in which case we would go back and negotiate the
original agreement. (HUH?) Oh well. I went panning for gold and
found all kind rocks and even some pyrite gold. It was a fun
time. Their website address is: http://www.naturalbridgecaverns.com.
Laura