Delving into the Sierras

My first Article on caves

A couple of years back, my husband and I went to Moaning Caverns for our anniversary. The cave is only a couple of hours' drive from where we live and costs a very reasonable $24 per person for adults. It isn't always easy to find somewhere fun and interesting on a budget, but the national parks and other attractions like this cave are great ways to get a lot of bang for your buck. I thought I would bring you a photo tour of the caverns. Let me know in the comments if you have been to a cavern near you!

When we first entered, there was a cage where our tour guide gave a few tidbits to start us off, including depth information and a teaser about how old the staircase was, without telling us straight up, that would come at the bottom. The cave was wet, as most caves are, but because of the cramped nature of the tunnels we went through, some of the tightest I remember being toured through.

I was glad I had several layers to protect me from getting overly damp. I hate being wet. I even wore a headscarf to protect my hair as "rusty" water was dripping down from the ceiling. It wasn't rust from degrading metal objects, it was from iron in the stone. Caves usually stay at the same temperature all year, usually in the mid-60s. It was in the 40s outside the day we went, so it felt warm and humid compared to outside.

There were some fun little artifacts from when miners searched for minerals in the cave — none of which were ever found — and a few broken formations. My favorite looks like a dinosaur or a dragon’s egg.

Like several others I have been to, Moaning Caverns had a touching stone — a wall, actually. The oils from our skin create a barrier and stop the minerals in the water from continuing to deposit on that formation. In the picture I took, you can see where most people have touched has become discolored. Everywhere I saw and touched in that area was dry, so building their staircase may have cut off its access to water, making those formations unlikely to grow anyhow. That is just my observation.

Once you get down the rusting spiral staircase, it’s incredible! I’m not afraid of heights, but I felt slightly panicky on those steps. I’m not a fan of spiral staircases in particular. With my vision and clumsiness, they are really tough. So I went down last, with only my husband behind me, so I could take my time.

The only bad thing about the day was that a couple brought an infant with them, a young one that still needed its head supported. The tunnels are cramped, and the stairs get slippery in places. It just wasn’t safe. It was barely safe for me, but I got to decide for myself. No one was potentially going to hurl me over a railing into the bone pit. A real thing at the bottom of the chamber we visited.

The cavern got its name from the sound that can sometimes be heard moaning through one of its most extensive formations, a column named the chocolate waterfall. It works like a bottle. The wind blows in the cave and across the top of the formation, creating an eerie hollow moaning. Before the noise pollution of modernity, the sound could be heard for miles. Unfortunately, the amount of water flowing through it on the day we went rendered it silent, like blowing on a bottle filled to the brim.

Once at the bottom, we found out the spiral staircase was a cutting-edge project, welded together in 1923 from a decommissioned World War I battle Ship. Walking back up, it was easy to believe the stairs were over 100 years old. We spent time down at the bottom looking at the beautiful shapes, listening to the splashing of the water, before I gave myself a head start on the stairs.

I was glad I thought ahead and did everything I wanted for the day before we went down. We stopped at my favorite thrift store on the way, and I picked up my souvenir before going down, since I barely made it back to the car, but make it I did.

K.B. Silver