Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

Our activities today probably come as no surprise to anyone who knows their caves. I say this because we have been told by many people that Carlsbad has some of the most amazing caverns in the world. Of course, the problem with this is that now it is going to be difficult for these yet-to-be-seen caverns to live up to the very loft expectations I have now associated with them. However, as you will find out, today brought some other unexpected surprises. The caverns themselves did not disappoint. We spent more than three hours underground checking out the tunnels and chambers that were carved out thousands of years ago. An interesting fact about these caves is that they were formed by virtue of sulfuric acid eating away the limestone rock underground rather than by water flowing through underground passageways. But to the untrained eye, say mine, they looked pretty much like I would expect any other extremely grandiose caverns to look, complete with both massive, and petite, stalagmites and stalactites as well as other impressive underground formation. We started with a guided tour of one of the subterranean areas. It was fascinating to hear all about these caves as we were walking through them. But for me personally, I really enjoyed hearing the stories of the person who originally explored these caves, Jim White. As far as I can tell, this Jim guy must have been a little insane. Or maybe he was just one of the first extreme sport guys. You see, one day he thinks he sees smoke so he heads over to find out what is going on. It turns out that it is not smoke that he sees but rather a huge number of bats exiting a hole in the ground. As he investigates further, he realizes that there are some caves further down. So Jim decides to head further into these caves to find out more. Mr. White found these caves back in the late 1800’s so, if you think about that for a second, you might wonder, what in the heck was this guy using to see where he was going while he was exploring these caves? A flashlight? Not likely. Jim was using a kettle filled with kerosene with a piece of rope hanging out of it as a wick. Sure, that sounds safe and reliable. At this point I was starting to wonder what would drive a person’s curiosity so much that he would walk into an unexplored dark hole in the ground. I already knew half the answer. I had just spent the better part of a day driving across the most barren landscape this side of the moon, so I guess if you lived in this area just about anything different may have held some allure. But I found out the second part of the answer when the tour guide told us that Jim was a teenager at the time. Ohhhhh, why didn’t you say so. I suppose I really should have guessed that, eh? Anyway, Jim continued to come back to these caves and expand his explorations over the next days, weeks, months, and ultimately years. I cannot even imagine heading into these caves on my own with about the same amount of light you get from a pen light. Well, maybe I can because at one point on our tour, the guide brought us into one of the larger chambers and then turned out all the lights. Talk about pitch black. I, quite literally, could not see my own hand in front of my face. He then lit a single candle to give us an idea of what it must have been like for Jim. The thought of searching through these unknown passageways and tunnels, on my own, not knowing what might be in there is a little too much for me. That Jim must have had huge … wait, this is a family blog, right? Let’s just say, Jim must have been fearless. After our guided tour we took a self-guided walking tour of “The Big Room”. And that name is not just hyperbole. This room is over 8 acrces large and the path you take to check out the entire underground room is over a mile (1.6 kms) long! It actually took us over two hours to make it all the way around. Like our guided tour, the cave highlights where lit in such a manner as retain the feeling of being in a cave while at the same time allowing you to see the impressive formations created over thousands of years. And not unlike Bryce Canyon, it seemed that every few steps presented a totally new and spellbinding view. The lighting was actually so well done that you felt like you were viewing items at an art gallery. This same muted lighting, which did such a wonderful job of preserving the natural feel of the caves, also made it rather difficult to capture these otherworldly views with my camera. Near the end of our self-guided tour, just after swinging by the “Bottomless Pit”, we finally had to call it a day to get some food. One regret is that we did not enter the caves via the “natural entrance”. You have the option of walking down into the caves using the same entrance as our old friend Jim, however, due to our arrival just prior to our guided tour, we had to take the elevator to get down in time. Oh well, we’ll have to go back again, I guess. Once we emerged from the depths and grabbed some lunch, we had one more location we wanted to hit today. This happened to be a place called Sitting Bull Falls. We were told that this cataract sported an impressive 150 foot (50 metre) drop, seemingly out of nowhere, which then drains back into seemingly nowhere. It sounded so enchanting we just had to see for ourselves. And we were told it was only about a 30 mile (50 km) drive. To be precise, it turned out to be a 36 mile (60 km) drive through some very desolate landscape of twisty and undulating roads complete with “judder bars” or “cattle traps” every few miles, all of which tended to keep your speed down. You really felt like nobody on the face of the earth would find you if your car broke down. We finally made it to the parking area for the waterfall and found we were the only ones there! Hmmmm. After a short walk to the viewing area for the falls you could see our jaws drop. But that was about all. There seemed to be barely enough water to make it over the edge of the cliff. Sure it was a 150 foot (50 metre) drop but it was more of a water “drip” than a full fledged water “fall”. However, I do have to admit that it was certainly a picturesque location even if it was lacking the pizzazz we were expecting after having seen Burney Falls in northern California. But on our way back, I realized why I was meant to take this trip out to the falls. Just as we left the parking area in the car we saw a freakin’ tarantula walking across the road !!! You read that correctly, a big, hairy, scary tarantula. I have never seen anything like this other than at a zoo or museum. Not exactly being a fan of spiders, (ok, they scare me to death) I’m glad I didn’t see that until AFTER I had toured the caverns and taken the walk to see the falls. Just another excellent example of how timing is everything in life. After me getting Chantal to turn around so I could take some pictures of our hairy friend (from the safety of the car, of course!), it was back to our campsite for dinner and another rented movie. The campsite had a huge selection for $1 each so we couldn’t resist. Last night we saw March of the Penguins (Thanks Louise and Brian!). This time we chose Hidalgo in honour of the name of the road the Sprint Family Locator had tracked us down to. After the movie I wanted to step outside to check out the stars as New Mexico is supposed to be one of the best places for viewing the night sky. You can just imaging, after the sighting I experienced on the road today, how comfortable I felt standing outside in the dark looking upward. But believe it or not, I actually managed to do it … with my heart rate at about 120 the entire time. Unfortunately there were a number of lights in the campground itself that rather ruined the benefits of being in this desert location. But I have to admit that I was not so disappointed to head back in to the relative safety of the MoHo. Somehow, standing on the dirt ground, in the dark, less than 30 miles from a wild tarantula sighting, I kind of felt like bait. I mean, how many more of them were out there in that no-man’s-land between our campsite and the falls?

Today’s word:

cataract \KAT-uh-rakt\, noun:
1. A great fall of water over a precipice; a large waterfall.
2. A downpour; a flood.
3. A clouding or opacity of the lens or capsule of the eye, which obstructs the passage of light.