$28M of work lets visitors inside cavernsThe excitement builds as the long-awaited public the floor, carbon dioxide escapes, leaving irregular opening of Kartchner Caverns State Park nears. layers of calcium carbonate, which grow into stalag The grand opening, scheduled for Nov. 12, is mites.
expected to draw worldwide attention. One of fewer Kartchner's walls are covered with helictites, than a dozen known "wet" caves in the world, it also is formed by water forcing its way through tiny fissures. ranked as one of the world's finest. Kartchner is Appearing like frozen waterfalls, called draperies or expected to be the state's second-largest tourist attrac- curtains, they have been formed by water deposits tion, behind Grand Canyon National Park. dripping on the underside of a sloping ceiling. A vari The 14 years spent exploring and designing the ety of iron deposits have created colorful formations cave for public access have been tedious and costly. called cave bacon; some deposits look like fried eggs Cost has run at about $27,000 a foot, with smooth and hard surfaces. totaling $28 million. The cost has been The single trail used by amateur expensive because of the work needed spelunkers Randy Tufts and Gary to protect the cave while allowing Tenen after they discovered and access to it. explored the cave remains on the To protect the fragile ecosystem, muddy bottom of the Throne Room. visitors will walk down a 40-foot-long This mud, which experts think might
shaft, passing through an air curtain 10 be as much as 12 feet deep, provides before entering an air-locked cham- 19 83 the moisture for the wetness and ber, where the air locks will remove humidity in the caves. During a rainy spores collected on clothing. Special year, rains seeps through the lime kick plates, constructed along the traff, stone, covering the 'mud to create a were designed to collect any foreign 82 river. material carried on shoes. During the summer months, sever
The Arizona State Parks will warn Not to scale Tucson Citizen al thousand bats use the Big Room as visitors not to touch anything. The a maternity ward. While the bats are half-mile traff winds through the mineral formations, birthing in the cave, they will be left in darkened pri stalactites, and stalagmites. One curious touch of a vacy. Cave experts feel that the wen-being of the bats hand could destroy a formation that had been a million will be a barometer of the public's impact on the cave. years in the making. Bats do not nest in the Throne Room but there is bat Lighting the interior of the cave was another chal- guano dating back 35,000 years. lenge for the experts. Too much wattage could create As the summer heat climbs past 100, the interior of too much heat and dry the cave, while too little light the cave maintains a temperature of 68 degrees and a could cause visitors to stumble. humidity of 97.5 to 100 percent. A tour through either the Big Room or Throne One feature of Kartchner Caverns is its accessi Room is enthralling. The stalactites and stalagmites, bility to the public. It is nine miles from Interstate 10. which grow one-tenth of a millimeter in a year, can be As people travel through southern Arizona's major viewed in all shapes and forms. Droplets of water seep interstate highway, a short detour will allow them to through the limestone creating the soda straws that tour one of the finest examples of a wet cave in the will eventually become! stalactites. When water hits world.