Kartchner Caverns State Park and Tucson, Arizona
March, 2010
One of the main reasons we have been travelling deep south into Arizona was to visit Kartchner Caverns State Park. It was our first introduction to touring an underground cave system and the experience was remarkable! The cavern was discovered in 1974 by two men who were "cavers". After crawling through extremely tight spaces for hours, they finally emerged in what is now called The Big Room and it was a cavers dream come true. There are thousands of various types of formations. Formations on the ceiling are called "stalactites" and formations on the ground are called "stalagmites". These formations are made by dripping water mixed with calcite deposits into the cave over hundreds, thousands, and sometimes millions of years. Scientists still don't fully understand how the dripping water seems to defy gravity and create such amazing formations. The cavern is still very active, meaning that many formations are still growing albeit, very slowly.
Photo's of Kartchner Caverns
Unfortunately, it was impossible to capture any good photo's with the lighting available in the caverns.
Tucson, Arizona
March 18-25, 2010
We made a special stop here to enjoy the annual Tucson Air Show at the Davis Monthan Air Force Base.
Our Accommodations - Molino Basin Campground
We were able to find a campground just outside of Tucson located in the Coronado National Forest called Molino Basin Campground. It was situated in the mountains about 4500 feet in elevation which made for really nice views of the area but it was considerably chillier than the city below!
Davis Monthon Air Force Base Airshow
On a sunny weekend we headed down to the airshow located on the grounds of the Davis Monthon Air Force Base in Tucson. They did an amazing job keeping you entertained with constant displays of air-born flights overhead and lots to see parked on the ground.