WHAT IS THERE THAT LOVES A CAVE?
Rex Burress
Over-heated people could certainly love a 57 F cave during the string of 100-plus degree days in Oroville July 2017! Early mankind loved caves when they could be found. Caves in Europe were a big attraction for Cavemen, not only to provide shelter, but the walls promoted a place for some pioneering art work.
Caves in America were also a cherished space for Native American Indians to take refuge, otherwise shelters from severe weather required building a tepee or bark enclosure. Perhaps those instincts led to the modern intrigue of cave exploration, and indeed in some instances, to escape from storms.
My fellow naturalist friend, Elmer Moore, once told the story of when he explored a petrified forest in Montana and was caught in a thunderstorm. He found a shallow cave but a porcupine had already hid there, so Elmer simply curled up on the other side and they both survived the best of friends! Similarly, I encountered a vicious hail storm in Lassen Park one time and found an abandoned cave to sit in and admire the bouncing hail.
Even a rock-overhang is a comforting place to sit and observe nature. You can find a few rock hangouts along the river and up the Feather River Canyon, where you can pause and ponder the woodlands. There is one of those accidental rock depressions next to the pier that supports the Table Mountain Bridge. Indian mortar holes in front of the cavity suggest it was a temporary shelter. Another such shallow cave can be found in upper Bidwell Park that also features mortar holes.
Other than lava tube-tunnels found in volcanic flows, and abandoned mine tunnels, the best natural caves are found in limestone formations. The Ozarks are famous for an abundance of caves etched into the soft rock by acidic water-flows and drips. My cousins Al and Pat Tolle once took Jo and I to such an underground labyrinth in the Blanchard Caverns near Mountain View, Arkansas. It's amazing that the cave was even found, since an elevator now takes you down deep in the ground to a wonderland of those stalactites and mineral creations.
Missouri is known as the Cave State, with 6,300 identified in limestone areas called “karst “ regions covering 78 of the state's 114 counties. Acidic rainwater dissolves limestone and dolomite bedrock to create caverns below the surface in an unseen landscape, as described in the August 2015 issue of Mo Conservationist.
Also of note in middle Missouri, is a “Brynjulfson Cave” that harbored a fossil of the dire wolf recorded as being dated at 9,440 years before present.
Even though the popular caves are lighted by electricity now, it's rather breathtaking to experience “cave darkness.” Carry a little flashlight in your pocket, 'just in case.' The ranger at Lehman Caves in eastern Nevada turned off the lights to show us “dark,” and I was quite relieved when precious light came back on! Forget caves if you're claustrophobic, but at least I wasn't gasping like another tour lady. “Do it in the dark” may refer to processing film in photographic darkrooms, but you're more invisible in cave darkness!
Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, Wind Cave in South Dakota, and even Shasta Caves in CA are some of the commercial caves. “Earth is quite holey!”
To some animals, crevices and dens in trees are cave-like places where they can find safety, just as den holes in the ground provide insulation from predaceous prowlers and weather. Birds have wings to escape those “who would do thee harm,” and although some species use tree crevices, very few take to a self-executed hole in the earth, except for nesting kingfishers and bank swallows. Burrowing owls borrow dens.
What is there that doesn't love a cave? An array of mammals take to the darkened recesses, including bats, perhaps the greatest cave devotee of all. I know some reptiles and salamanders like the cool conditions of a cave, especially in the heat of summer, especially rattlesnakes.
I once encountered a garter snake that had slithered into a three-foot-high cave on Table Mountain. The particular tunnel had been dug under the lava cap to reach a petrified log, and when I crawled in to check out what was left of the agate, the snake had preceded me to laze in the coolness. My presence reigned, and I simply raised up and let the snake crawl under me to reach the outside ravine! Here's to the wonder of a cave, and a snake in a tunnel!
“Caves are whimsical things, and geology on a local scale is random and unpredictable.”
--William Stone
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” --Joseph Campbell