Kartchner Caverns

We visited the caverns with friends Jim and Shirley, touring the largest cavern on the 13th, “The Big Room” and the smaller one “The Throne Room or Rotunda” on the 19th. The tours are fairly costly but well worth the price. Kartchner Caverns is a State Park so a fee for entrance to the park has to be paid then the cost of the tour, smaller cavern is 18.95, large cavern 22.95 per person. The tour begins at the Discovery Centre where a short video is shown in a lovely theatre, explaining how the caves were discovered, some pictures and information regarding the care and preservation practices that were undertaken while the caverns were prepared for public viewing. After viewing the video there are many interpretive displays to investigate as well as a very nice little store and a small café named “The Bat Cave”. We did not make reservations for the tour of “The Big Room” until we arrived at the park so we had time to wander, grab a bite to eat at the café, food was very good, all freshly prepared and of course Shirley and I had to check out the store. The proceeds from sales at the store help support the park so we were pleasantly surprised to find reasonably priced good quality unique items, eco friendly items, example t-shirts made from fibres of old t-shirts along with samples of “how they create new fibre from old t-shirts”, many gems, books, DVD’s, CD’s relating to caving and the Caverns along with the usual mugs, hats, calendars etc. I purchased a book with some nice pictures and information after our tour of the second cavern.



A catus with interesting growth, the area around the Discovery Centre is very nicely landscaped, many plants are named, there are many species of sage growing in the gardens.

Shirley and I along with Jim and Woody wandered around the gardens, it was a very nice day.

There are benches placed along the paths as well a large covered picnic area.

Entrance to the caverns photographed from the garden area with telephoto lens.

The tours are booked every 20 or 30 minutes all day (depending on which cavern) and led by a knowledgeable, informative volunteer guide as well a volunteer who follows the group. The tour begins with the guide explaining the rules, and how careful we must be while in the cavern to not damage the cavern, we then take a ride on a tram passing the original sink hole where the 2 cavers crawled though and found the caverns and up to the parking area close to the cavern. After disembarking from the tram the guide explained that we would be entering through several sets of sealed doors to keep the inside air out, as we entered the second tunnel the guide explained how to fold our jackets so the jacket would not flap and create more lint than necessary as well so that our coat sleeves would not accidentally touch any of the formations or rock walls. The caverns are very warm and moist; we also walk through an area where we are misted with water which is done so our very dry bodies and cloths will not suck any moisture from the caverns and it also assists with keeping lint from floating around. We were very impressed by the care that is taken to preserve these caverns, they are living caverns, which is very unique, from the beginning to end these caverns are awesome and one just cannot explain the jaw dropping effect that happens when viewing the formations in the caverns. For more information and a few pictures click on the links below. No cameras are allowed in the caverns as well as any other loose items, as in food, water bottles, etc. There is a good reason for that, as people dropped their cameras over the rail, set up tripods on the rocks, dropped sunglasses, etc. when the first tourists were allowed to bring in such items.
There are a couple of videos on this site, they are good but cannot compare to visiting in person.
http://azstateparks.com/Parks/KACA/science.html
http://www.amwest-travel.com/awt_kartchner.html
http://tourcochisecounty.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/kartchner-caverns/

We enjoy the company of Jim and Shirley very much, they are fun, easy going, interesting people to spend time with. We will miss them very much, they are leaving on Thursday and said they will not be back in AZ next year but invited us to come and visit them in MN which we would love to do hopefully next year on our trip home.