Day Trips: Cave Without a Name, Boerne
Hill Country underground rock formations are too beautiful to be named
Fri., Nov. 18, 2016
Cave Without a Name was first explored by 6-year-old Mary McGrath and her two brothers. What they discovered in the light of a kerosene lantern under a pasture outside of Boerne was described as too beautiful to have a name. Before the 1935 expedition by the McGrath children – Mary, 6; Harold, 14; James, 10 – the cave entrance had been used by bootleggers. Tours of the subterranean galleries began in 1939. Crawling through narrow passageways, the children came to cathedral-size rooms decorated with rock formations that looked like towers of melted wax.
What's amazing about the cave is that one side is burnished smooth by ancient underground rivers while the other side of the enormous rooms is decorated with sculptures created by centuries of dripping water carrying trace amounts of minerals. A drop that falls on a visitor is called a "cave kiss" and bestows seven years of good luck.
In the clandestine world 99 feet below the surface where darkness is a velvety absoluteness, the colors can be spectacular in the light of the tour. The ribbons of cave bacon are a bold red, clusters of cave grapes are bleached white, and the waxlike columns of various sizes are browns and yellows.
Cave Without a Name is about 11 miles north of Boerne off FM 474. For directions, call 830/537-4212 or go to www.cavewithoutaname.com. While you're there, check out the list of concerts scheduled for the Throne Room in the coming months.
1,321st in a series. Collect them all. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of "Day Trips," is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 40312, South Austin, TX 78704.
Follow "Day Trips & Beyond," a weekly travel blog, at austinchronicle.com/daily/travel.
