Here is a part of the trail we hiked. |
The boys charging ahead. |
Mules hauling things up the trail (Look familiar, Steve?). |
There's always enough energy left for a hug. |
Steve and Bradley will hike here tomorrow. Except they will go all the way down and come up again the same day (12 miles roundtrip), which is so very, very macho, if you ask me. If anyone can pull it off, it's these two! At least it won't be dangerously hot like it is in the summer. In fact, the weather forecast calls for snow... It will be an interesting descent into the underworld for them!
Talking of descending into the underworld: A couple of days ago, we were at Kartchner caverns, 30 miles away from the Mexican
border. Steve kept trying to explain to the
boys that we are 30 miles away from Canada where we live in the
Pacific Northwest, and that now, we are 30 miles away from another
country as well, but somehow, the kids don't seem to quite get it.
I asked Steve how to describe Kartchner
caverns. Here is what he said: “It is an awesome spectacle of
nature's grandeur.” Yes, he's right. He said it's an inside joke,
but I'm not in on it, and I don't need to be, because the fact is:
The caverns ARE a spectacle of nature's grandeur. We slapped down
$70 to participate in a tour of the caverns. Usually, we are very
thrifty and spend that much money for four or five days of campground
fees, but it was worth it. There are very strict rules when visiting
the caverns - you can't touch anything at all, because otherwise,
bacteria would grow and mess with the cave's delicate environment.
Someone spit out a cough drop once, and in three days it had grown to
the size of a baseball.
You can tell this cave is alive. There are
stalagmites and stalactites, columns, and mineral deposit formations
that look like popcorn and slabs of bacon. I kid you not! And since it's a wet cave, the awesome formations keep forming.
The main feature of the cave is a 60
foot column that is hundreds of thousands of years old. Even Eva was
awed by it, staring up at it in stunned silence. I think she
realized that we were in the presence of something sacred.
It broke my heart that I couldn't take
pictures. I wish I could show you the beauty of these caves, but you
just have to take my word for it.
Here is a picture of a huge sloth, whose bones were excavated from the cave.
After the tour, we went for a 2.5 mile
hike around the perimeter of the cave, which was so unreal because
the hills that hide the caves underneath are the plainest, most
boring looking brushy hills you can imagine. It's crazy to imagine
what beauty is hidden underneath. On the hike, Steve and I served as
Eva's mules, as usual. We got quite sunburnt while following tracks
of Javelina (a kind of native pig), chasing lizards, and marveling
at towering yucca and agave seed talks.
Sunrise at the campground. The boys slept in a tent for several nights because it was so warm. |
The day before Kartchner caverns, we visited an ancient
native American site in the Catalina mountains – the remnants of a
walled village. We meandered along an interpretive trail with a lot
of great information about the site and the people who lived there.
This is homeschooling at its best!
Learning from one of the interpretive signs. |
Old growth Saguaro cactus. |
Eva playing in one of the ancient "houses". |
And here are some pictures from the past week just because.
Wow!!! Das ist ja wunderschön!!! Ich wünschte, ich könnte dabei sein....Wie lange seid ihr denn jetzt noch unterwegs??? Hab dich lieb, dicke Bussis.
ReplyDeleteLiebes Bellerchen. Ich weiss, es waere so super wenn du hier sein koenntest.... Wir sind jetzt noch fuenf oder sechs Tage unterwegs, dann wieder heim...
DeleteBussi!