Saturday, April 03, 2010

Scenes From Kartchner Caverns



John and I have arrived at Kartchner Caverns in southern Arizona to volunteer for a few months at one of the premier show caves in the country.

Kartchner Caverns is a new cave in the sense that it was discovered in 1974 and first opened to the public in 1999. Mother Nature, however, has been working on it for millions of years!

Kartchner Caverns is special in that it has never been raided, graffitified, littered, or tromped through as most other show caves have been. Until it was discovered, humans had never set foot in the cave, and the only entrance being the size of a grapefruit.

It is also special because it is a "living" cave -- water, the creator and decorator of the cave, is still at work making soda straws, stalactites, stalagmites, bacon drapes, and all sorts of frills and doo-dads. You can hear it dripping. You can see it fall.



Photography is not permitted in the caves, but some nice photos and videos are available on Kartchner's website (linked above). The caves are located in the Chihuahuan Desert, and we have an RV site where we can monitor mesquite trees, prickly pear cactus, and a few Black-tailed Jackrabbits (Lepus californicus) as they hop by. A windmill sits behind us, still pumping -- although we suspect the water is not flowing anymore as the tank seems empty.

We have a clothesline right behind us, and I dried the latest wash on it -- a task I have not done for at least 40 years. It dried quickly in the low humidity, but my biggest problem was trying to remember if pants should be hung from clothespins at the waist or legs! Anybody?


6 comments:

Diana said...

It's the Easter Bunny! You are so lucky to have found him.

O.B. Sirius said...

OH, NO!! Does that mean that if I catch him, the first thing I need to do is bite off his ears? That's what I'd do if he were chocolate...

Anonymous said...

My mother always hung pants from the legs. Ah the good old days. ;-)

Sharon Del Rosario said...

Hmmm...I always hang pants from the waist, but maybe I'll try the other way. Be careful with biting jackrabbit ears. His buddies might come to his rescue and hop all over you!

Donna McNicol said...

If you fold your pants seam-to-seam, then I'd hang them by the legs in that fashion. If you fold the legs with the seams flat on either side, then hang by the waist. At least that's how I do it...LOL!

Nancy said...

OK, I still hang pants to dry on a line in my basement. Pants are heavier at the waste, so hanging them by the legs allows them to dry straighter. This means no ironing! Or is ironing a thing from the past too????