SporkSports - Outdoor Arizona, October 2002

(5-31-08)

I'd heard about the Grand Canyon Caverns maybe a year or so ago and figured that some day I should drive up there and see what they're like. It's about 250 miles from my house though, so I kept putting it off since that would be kind of far for a day trip. Well, the company I work for gives you two days to use as personal holidays every year. You have to use them by the end of the year or else you lose them. Well I'd used one way back at the start of the year but never got around to using the other so around the beginning of October I decided to just pick a Friday and declare that to be my other day. That day was the 18th.

So with a day off, now I had to find something to do so that it would seem worth having time off work. Somehow it just wouldn't be the same if all I did was sit around at home and reply to emails, read messageboards, and play Gran Turismo 3. Since it had been a while since I'd really done a road trip of any kind and I'd just gotten new tires and replaced a bad axle on my car I figured this was as good a time as any to plan another trip. A quick review of what parts of the state I'd been to reminded me that I'd never really gone anywhere in the northwest part of the state. I spotted Grand Canyon Caverns on the map and after a few quick internet searches turned up the phone number of the GC Caverns Inn and found some directions.

With all the information needed and some clothes and a second pair of shoes packed in my car I left Thursday after work and went straight to the Inn where I stayed the night. They actually had a small selection of free movie rentals there so I grabbed an old favorite of mine, The Bachelor and had a healthy dinner of BBQ potato chips and chocolate milk while watching the movie before going to sleep. In the morning I had a breakfast fit for hiking - milk and cheesy peanut butter crackers along with some Mentos candies and it was off to the Caverns. Unfortunately none of the pictures I took really did justice to the caverns, but they'll hopefully at least give an idea of a few of the things you can see while you're down there 210 feet below the Earth's surface. It's certainly worth the $12 admission.

I decided to take the long way home, via going further west along Route 66 to Kingman, then taking the I-40 east to the 89 south which goes through Prescott. There's a lake in Prescott along the 89 that I'd seen before but never had the time or inclination to stop at, so I took this as the chance to stop there and take a few pictures which you'll also see below. As if that wasn't enough, Brady and a few of his friends decided to drive up Four Peaks the next day (Saturday) so I tagged along to get a chance to do a little off-road driving and taking pictures (though not both at the same time). It was actually fun enough that it's tempting to sell my Civic race car and just buy an old truck and put some huge tires on it so I can do more offroad stuff. Well, almost. Maybe some time in the future.

Friday, October 18th, 2002, A shot of my Civic at the entrance to the Caverns and Inn
No roadside attraction is complete without a dinosaur! Actually I learned that GCC used to be known as the dinosaur caverns before it was learned that the caverns stretched all the way to the Grand Canyon.
First stop on the tour is the Crystal Room, at the lowest point in the caverns - 220 feet below the earth's surface.

Snowball Palace, named because the area looks like a bunch of snowballs is actually some sort of mineral formation. Grand Canyon Caverns maintains a constant 56 degrees and 6% humidity year round, day or night.
A cutaway of one of the snowballs reveals all the rings of the mineral deposits.
This huge area was a little bit much for my tiny flash to illuminate, but the existing lighting helped a bit. Known as the Chapel of the Ages, it's a huge open area in the caverns large enough for a basketball court if anyone was so inclined to build one down here.

Because of the low humidity, general absence of germs, and some sort of interaction with the minerals present in the caverns, nothing really rots in much of a hurry. This bridal bouquet was actually placed there in a May 2000 wedding and is still in quite good shape.
Although called the Devil's Den, this passage is actually where all air is drawn in and expelled from the caverns. It was discovered through the use of smoke bombs that the passages somehow run underground from the caverns about 60 miles north to the Grand Canyon, hence the caverns being called the Grand Canyon Caverns.
This poor fella died about 152 years ago but was remarkably well preserved due to the general lack of any decay in the caverns. Apparently when first found in 1920-something he even still had all his hair. The age was discovered much, much later thanks to carbon dating it's broken hip bone. Based on it's expression, that broken hip probably hurt a lot.

Finally, a map of the caverns.
After leaving the caverns, I continued west along route 66 taking a few pictures along the way. These mountains were to the north, somewhere in the vicinity of Peach Springs.
Further west along route 66 there's quite a lot of really textured mountain ranges. The absolute lack of any significant traffic on the 66 thanks to the creation of Interstate 40 makes it easy to slow to about 30mph to take pictures.

Still further east, a cool table mesa on the south side of the road.
I had originally planned on taking this one road that I spotted on the map to the west end of the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, it turned out the 50 mile road to the canyon was a dirt road. Maybe next time...
Closer to home, I passed by Watson Lake in Prescott and decided to stop to take some late evening pictures. This one I brightened up with a color saturation filter.

The worn but rocky shoreline.
A lone kayaker in the distance seen here in the upper left part of the photo.
Finally within an hour of home, I capture a shot of evening's last light from the Sunset Point rest area along the I-17.

The day actually started around 2 in the afternoon with a short drive around some roads north of Fountain Hills to check the equipment out.
The mini-utes encounter some real horsepower.
With that out of the way, we head east towards Four Peaks, seen in the distance in the right of this picture.

On the way up the road to the top of Four Peaks, Brady spotted a huge mud puddle just screaming out to be driven through. What else is 4WD good for if you can't get pictures tearing through a mud puddle?
With the mud puddle conquered, we take a few minutes to enjoy the scenery.
By now we were getting much closer to the summit.

Once reaching the highest point we could drive to, we stop to take some pictures. As it turns out, you can see a small part of Roosevelt Lake once you reach the top.
The small visible sliver of Roosevelt Lake.
We parked the cars at the parking lot near the summit and started hiking one of the trails. The setting sun provided a real lighting challenge for me as a photographer but also some creative opportunities.

The sun setting behind one of the mountain peaks.
Having gone about as far along the trail as we could, we could see how close to the rocky peaks we were, seen here at the top left.
As the sun was finally setting in the west, the moon was rising in the east.

Just before leaving, I captured one last shot of the valley before piling in to the cars and making the hour-long drive back down the mountain.

Page Created: 10-22-02

Friday, October 18th, 2002, A shot of my Civic at the entrance to the Caverns and Inn	No roadside attraction is complete without a dinosaur! Actually I learned that GCC used to be known as the dinosaur caverns before it was learned that the caverns stretched all the way to the Grand Canyon.	First stop on the tour is the Crystal Room, at the lowest point in the caverns - 220 feet below the earth's surface.
Snowball Palace, named because the area looks like a bunch of snowballs is actually some sort of mineral formation. Grand Canyon Caverns maintains a constant 56 degrees and 6% humidity year round, day or night.	A cutaway of one of the snowballs reveals all the rings of the mineral deposits.	This huge area was a little bit much for my tiny flash to illuminate, but the existing lighting helped a bit. Known as the Chapel of the Ages, it's a huge open area in the caverns large enough for a basketball court if anyone was so inclined to build one down here.
Because of the low humidity, general absence of germs, and some sort of interaction with the minerals present in the caverns, nothing really rots in much of a hurry. This bridal bouquet was actually placed there in a May 2000 wedding and is still in quite good shape.	Although called the Devil's Den, this passage is actually where all air is drawn in and expelled from the caverns. It was discovered through the use of smoke bombs that the passages somehow run underground from the caverns about 60 miles north to the Grand Canyon, hence the caverns being called the Grand Canyon Caverns.	This poor fella died about 152 years ago but was remarkably well preserved due to the general lack of any decay in the caverns. Apparently when first found in 1920-something he even still had all his hair. The age was discovered much, much later thanks to carbon dating it's broken hip bone. Based on it's expression, that broken hip probably hurt a lot.
Finally, a map of the caverns.	After leaving the caverns, I continued west along route 66 taking a few pictures along the way. These mountains were to the north, somewhere in the vicinity of Peach Springs.	Further west along route 66 there's quite a lot of really textured mountain ranges. The absolute lack of any significant traffic on the 66 thanks to the creation of Interstate 40 makes it easy to slow to about 30mph to take pictures.
Still further east, a cool table mesa on the south side of the road.	I had originally planned on taking this one road that I spotted on the map to the west end of the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, it turned out the 50 mile road to the canyon was a dirt road. Maybe next time...	Closer to home, I passed by Watson Lake in Prescott and decided to stop to take some late evening pictures. This one I brightened up with a color saturation filter.
The worn but rocky shoreline.	A lone kayaker in the distance seen here in the upper left part of the photo.	Finally within an hour of home, I capture a shot of evening's last light from the Sunset Point rest area along the I-17.
The day actually started around 2 in the afternoon with a short drive around some roads north of Fountain Hills to check the equipment out.	The mini-utes encounter some real horsepower.	With that out of the way, we head east towards Four Peaks, seen in the distance in the right of this picture.
On the way up the road to the top of Four Peaks, Brady spotted a huge mud puddle just screaming out to be driven through. What else is 4WD good for if you can't get pictures tearing through a mud puddle?	With the mud puddle conquered, we take a few minutes to enjoy the scenery.	By now we were getting much closer to the summit.
Once reaching the highest point we could drive to, we stop to take some pictures. As it turns out, you can see a small part of Roosevelt Lake once you reach the top.	The small visible sliver of Roosevelt Lake.	We parked the cars at the parking lot near the summit and started hiking one of the trails. The setting sun provided a real lighting challenge for me as a photographer but also some creative opportunities.
The sun setting behind one of the mountain peaks.	Having gone about as far along the trail as we could, we could see how close to the rocky peaks we were, seen here at the top left.	As the sun was finally setting in the west, the moon was rising in the east.
	Just before leaving, I captured one last shot of the valley before piling in to the cars and making the hour-long drive back down the mountain.