Day Trips
By Gerald E. McLeod, Fri., Aug. 15, 2003
The Caverns of Sonora glow in the soft artificial light like a subterranean land made of jewels. On the 2-mile trip through the cave, amazing formations come into view around every corner, from the cave popcorn that covers the walls to fishtail helictites that look like they are made from glass.
From the surface, the scrub-brush-covered West Texas desert hardly looks like a place for such colorful and fragile beauty. The land is inhospitable with cacti and thorny bushes covering the hills. Under the surface is a wonderland of delicate rock formations.
From the beginning of the tour, the underground air is damp and cool. The Sonora region averages only 18 inches of rain a year, but the constant dripping of water echoes through the inky darkness. It is the slow dripping of mineral-rich droplets that creates the artistry of the formations.
The caverns were formed over thousands of years by water containing carbon dioxide slowly dissolving the limestone. The minuscule deposits left by the dripping build stalactites hanging from the ceiling that grow to meet the stalagmites on the floor to create a cave column. Some columns look like they grew out of mounds of still-warm wax.
"You can't measure the growth of a crystal in a lifetime," Jack Burch told Blair Pittman in an interview for Pittman's book Texas Caves. Burch managed access to the cave for more than 37 years from when it opened to the public in 1960. During his time as manager he carefully measured a stalactite that was only one three-thousandth of an inch from the stalagmite below. In 43 years the 3-foot-long stalactite hasn't managed to close the gap.
The cave was discovered on Stanley Mayfield's ranch around 1900, but extensive exploration did not begin until 1955. Unfortunately, many of the original explorers were souvenir hunters who destroyed some of the cave's unique features. Fortunately, access to most of the beautiful formations was blocked by cave-ins and deep cavities. "The only way to save Sonora was to commercialize it. Then it could be protected," Burch told Pittman.
Burch and an army of volunteers, including a young Blair Pittman, carefully excavated a half-mile trail that opened to the public in 1960 and another half-mile the following year. In 1979, the trail was expanded to 2 miles of the 7-mile-long cave.
The narrow paths drop about 155 feet below the surface and wind through rooms with names like War Clubs, Valley of Ice, Christmas Tree Room, Halo Lake, and Crystal Palace. While the rooms are not as large as Carlsbad Caverns, they are decorated in colorful and rare formations.
Along one ceiling, "cave bacon" hangs with portions of its fringe broken by disrespectful previous visitors. The red, orange, and brown colors of the formations are caused by iron from the soil and the white deposits of calcium.
With more than 95% of the formations still growing, the cave is most unusual for the sheer number of helictites, formations that seem to defy gravity as they grow out of the cave walls. Ranging from long, thin soda straws dangling from the ceiling to fingers that look like petrified worms, the large number in this cave belies the rarity of the formations.
The most remarkable of the helictite formations are the ones that look like crystal fishtails protruding from the rock. Wet and sparkling, thousands of fishtails decorate the wall. The most famous attraction in the cave is a pair of symmetrical fishtail helictites that forms a butterfly shape surrounded by shapes that look like they are made of ice.
The Caverns of Sonora are eight miles west of Sonora and six miles south of I-10. The trip takes about four hours from Austin. There is an hour-and-15-minute, 1.25-mile tour and an hour-and-45-minute, 2-mile tour. The hike is moderately strenuous with a steep climb coming out. Admission ranges from $20 for adults to $12 for children. At a constant 70 degrees, the caverns are a welcome relief from the Texas heat. For more information, call 915/387-3105 or visit their Web site at www.cavernsofsonora.com.
636th in a series. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of Day Trips 101-200, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.
