DESCENT INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE EARTH … UM, TEXAS
It was a birthday treat to
myself. I had a week off, and was doing
a staycation, so it was time to take some day trips. I decided to make it a “cave day” by hitting
two sets of nearby caverns in the same day.
I drove southwest from Austin to the
small town of Boerne
and arrived first at Cascade Cavern.
Parts of this cave was exposed to the outside (as Indians once used it
as a hideout), but there was a whole larger section which wasn’t discovered
until a homeowner in the 1930s went digging for a well. A few tunnels dug later, it’s a tourist spot.
I got there about 9.30 am, and one
tour group had just departed. I had to
wait until the appropriate time for my group to go, that way they catch people
as they come in, and take a bunch together.
I timed it really well, because no one else came in while I was waiting,
so I was the “tour group.” My guide said
she enjoyed having small numbers because it was easier to keep track of them,
and she didn’t have to speak as loudly.
(Unfortunately, as I’m writing this after-the-fact, I don’t recall my
guide’s name. Strictly for the ease of
not saying “my tour guide” repeatedly, I’ll refer to her as “Cassie” only
because it has the first three letters of the cave.)
GETTING INSIDE THE CAVES
This area used to be a working
ranch, and had a “visitor’s center” constructed right at the mouth of the cave,
which was no longer used. The newer
visitor center was a bit further back from the entrance, probably to cut down
on erosion. A short explanation of how
cool air kept coming up from the ground of the manor house prompted a search
which discovered the old Indian caves.
Stairs were later built be able to bring people down into caves.
Once past the Indian caves, we
entered into a section where the caves were still alive, and the rock
formations continued to grow. Cassie
explained all the various features, and was impressed at my knowledge of caves
(as I’d been to Inner Space and Natural
Bridge
After that initial section, the
ceiling of the cave extends up dramatically.
This is what the manor house was built over, and the cold air from the
caves is still felt in the house. The
manor house is used as an office and employee lounge now, so there’s nothing to
go in to see. Because I knew so much
about cave stuff, it made Cassie’s job a lot easier. She spent some time given other tidbits of
information about the background of the caves, and also volunteered to be used
as size reference for some of my shots to show how large the caves were.
Normally caves like this don’t have
anything living in them. While mosses or
other plants might grow around the cave mouths, there’s nothing inside the
caves because there’s no light source.
One section of the cave was roped off so you couldn’t be within twenty
feet of this one section of the wall.
Seems there was a patch of mold growing there. Cassie commented it was a novelty which was
pointed out to people. Since you weren’t
supposed to touch the cave walls, they didn’t worry about any one getting too
close to it. She mentioned a few years
earlier, one guest noticed it, and apparently knew someone who was
knowledgeable about cave life.
This moss is so specific, it’s only
find in one other place in the United
States (don’t recall where), and not very
common worldwide. It reacts to close
vibrations, and can shoot out spores out to about ten feet. These spores can cause a fatal infection in
you breathe them in. That’s why the area
was roped off, but Cassie said they couldn’t remove the moss due to its
uniqueness. That’s a lawsuit waiting to
happen, I’m sure. But if they tell you
not to mess with it, and you do, and die from it, I guess that’s just an
example of natural selection at work.
A short distance after that, we
came into what they called the throne room.
It was an underground lake, with ledges on either side (hence the hand
rails). On the backside of the wall the
rock was discolored from where the water had trickled down over the years. It had a throne-like structure, hence the
name. What was really interesting about
this part, is the caves continued downwards.
Cassie explained under the water was a manhole cover they put there to
seal off that section, in order to keep anyone who might fall into the lake
from being sucked down even further. A
few SCUBA people did a brief investigation at one point, and reported a rather
large water-filled expanse under the throne room. Very little exploration was done due to the
difficulty involved, and this was not something they could ever open to the
public. Even if the water table dropped
significantly, the nature of the opening would keep any tour group from ever
being able to go down there.
Because I was the only person on
the tour group, and had showed I had a brain when it came to cave stuff, Cassie
was open to a suggestion. As there were
no groups coming directly behind us, we got to hang out here for a bit. I mentioned one thing that InnerSpace would
do in their “discovery room” is turn out all the lights (except for a single
flashlight) to give a sense of what it looked like when that cave was first
found. I asked if we could do the same
here. An unusual request, and one Cassie
thought was very cool.
After Cassie had me park myself at
one location (and promise not to move), she backtracked down the cave trail to
the switch box, and snapped off some of the lights. Some others were closer to the discolored
waterfall rock. Once all the lights were
out, it was really interesting to feel the blackness of the cave all around
you. The only thing you heard was the
nearby water. I did snap a picture of
the place in the dark, and it captured it pretty well. Humidity from within the cave caused the
flash to reflect off of them, hence the picture looks “spotty” or like there’s
stuff on the lense. (Because there were
other light sources in other shots I took, those pictures don’t have that
“spotty” nature.) We hung out there for
a few minutes before Cassie turned the lights back on.
As we headed back the way we came,
Cassie took me to a side chamber that’s part of the tour. There was a particular pool of water which
made a great optical illusion. This pool
jutted out at about a height of four or five feet. When looking at it face on, or from the above,
it appeared that the water was only a few inches deep. Cassie brought out a long pole (setting
nearby for this very purpose) which she used to break the surface. The pole was at least six to seven feet in
height, and most of the pole was swallowed by the water when just at the edge. The center of the pool was a few feet deeper,
which just added to the illusion even more.
Also something which was not normally done, Cassie did allow me to put
my hand into the water to see how it distorted the vision. That was pretty cool, as it didn’t make my
hand look any different.
Another tour group was coming in,
so Cassie had to get back to being an actual guide. One of her peers mentioned to her (as we were
exiting the caves) that the tour I had last about twice as long as what people
get normally. It’s just because I timed
it right, and had a good guide. That
made for a wonderful experience at Cascade Caverns. If I was in the area, I’d certainly go back
there again, and thought it was very much worth the visit.
After getting a tip from Cassie and
her co-workers as to where a good place to eat was, I then headed towards the
second set of caves I’d explore today:
The Cave Without A Name.
More information could be found at: www.cascadecaverns.com
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