second time around

What a day! Absolutely, positively, slap me in the face, saddle me up a big white goose – tie me on and turn it loose, stupefyingly incredible place. Now I remember why this was the pivotal place to come to, the one anchor I would not miss on this trip. I believe the most impressive place I have ever seen in this world. It is a magical wonderland of Fairies and everything you can imagine. “Moria, and they call it a mine! A mine!”
Went to the park at opening hoping for special tour tickets. We couldn’t get the tickets for the left hand tour which is with lanterns to a deeper section of the caves. So as a result we got tickets for the King’s Palace tour and then were on the first elevator down to the cave. It was so special walking alone into the Big room. Bill and I were with three other people in the entire cave, mostly we spread out and felt the loneness of the big room, extreme quiet, a spiritual experience. Lots of pictures, hand held in low low light so some blurring in a lot of them, but still it is all good. It is so hard to comprehend the size and sheer diversity and beauty of the formations without actually being there. Pictures compared to being there are like porn compared to sex, it gives you the idea but it isn’t the same. After walking the self-guided tour of the big room, we went on a guided tour of the King’s Palace. This is the favorite room of Jim White, the 16 year old cowboy that “discovered” it. He was crazy, explored down deep into the cave, and named several rooms and formations, spent his whole life with the cave. But to go that deep into the caves with virtually no supplies is insane. The story is he once came back out on three matches. Ranger Janet must have had a hard night, because she was not exactly bubbly and engaging. The sights more than made up for it. After the tour we walked the big room again, this time there were lots of people in the cave, not overwhelming, but not all alone either. Up to the top, and a sandwich for lunch. My camera batteries were all but out (both). We decided to walk a little way into the natural entrance for a camera shot. We kept going just a little more and a little more for a better angle, and then decided to just go on down all the way. What a great idea, it was somewhat far and steep downhill, but a great asphalt trail, and it really gave me the true feeling of what an amazing thing it was for Jim White to go down this rabbit hole so far and without any trail! ABSOFUCKINLUTELY AMAZING PLACE. These are shots of the cave, the entrance, and proof that Roswell was no accident, check out the petrified alien baby!!

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, June 6th, 2011 at 10:38 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.