secret of the caves

during our vacation we journeyed from the cabin to the "moaning caverns" in the gold country. when i was younger my best friend's mom took us to "mercer caverns" and i have to say the whole experience left no impression on me. later while traveling across the country i stopped at carlsbad, which was quite memorable, especially watching the bats fly out at dusk.
moaning caverns, so named because of the audible sounds that come up from below caused by dripping water deep in the lowest chambers is a really fascinating and somewhat grim place. the original opening is about 12 feet wide. it drops down about 20 feet to a landing. it then drops off nearly 300 feet. from this dark precipice many men and animals met their fate. their bones formed a pile below at one time over 20 feet high. that height has dropped now to about 14 feet as many have been looted and excavated over the years. but the ones that remain are protected by law as the burial site of native-american people. perhaps their voices are the ones now moaning.


our little group descended out of the heat down a set of narrow stairs. the humidity and close quarters proved too much for half our intrepid travelers and they returned to the earth's surface. my oldest boys and i pressed on. at the bottom of the wooden stairs there was an amazing and now ancient steel spiral staircase. built by one of the engineers who designed the golden gate bridge and in 1922, he spent his honeymoon here with his new bride assembling this marvel.


from here we were treated to the fantastic world below. hanging stalactites that resembled bacon, otherworldly looking formations, some that sounded hollow when knocked on, some that shone luminescent. having just watched the original 1959 "journey to the center of the earth" i was well prepared for the journey.


at the bottom of our spiral staircase we entered the grand hall. here was a space below ground large enough to house an upside down lady liberty. our guide turned off all artificial light and told us that after 15 minutes we would all be hallucinating. after a week we would be blind. fortunately he returned the lights before any of our party went mad. the temperature was a constant 71F made more tolerable by the presence of a man made pool nearby.
we enjoyed our time in the belly of the whale and felt a strange sensation in our temporary dwelling. i thought about all those souls, bones piled nearby and the cruel trick the caves had played on them. i thought of the fear that must have raced through their minds and hearts in those final seconds and of all those who came before who made homes in caves and how now, even as i write this, it is from another dimly lit man-made cave.