GETTING AWAY

IT'S ALIVE!

Animal? Vegetable? Oh wait, this one we know: it’s mineral. When is a cavern considered a living and breathing entity? Why, as long as it’s still growing of course. Arizona’s fascinating Kartchner Caverns are but in the bloom of their ever fertile adulthood, sprouting shoots in every direction that spurt up at the whopping rate of one inch per century. Water percolates through the limestone caverns, leaching calcium carbonate, which is redeposited to grow into stunning formations: slender soda straws, ominous stalagmites and stalactites, connected columns, and translucent curtains—some striated like fat-veined bacon.

Since Arizona’s hot dry air is like kryptonite to this dynamic cave system, the caverns are hermetically sealed through a series of doorways and antechambers. But visitors can access the poetically-named Rotunda and Throne Room year-round through guided tours, while the Big Room reopens in October after serving as a summer birthing ward for over 1000 female bats—who do their own percolating over the winter.

Kartchner Caverns
Located on Highway 90, nine miles south of I-10, near Benson, Ariz.

Reduced rate through September 4
$16.95 (ages 14+)
$8.95 (ages 7-13)
Free (children under seven)

Reservations Recommended: 520-586-2283

Photo: K.L. Day, courtesy of Arizona State Parks