Across the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum's 98 acres, you'll find 230 animal species – including hummingbirds, coyotes and string rays – along with 1,200 local plant species. In fact, 85% of what you'll experience is outdoors and requires walking (dress accordingly). For more information, visit the park's official website.Īlthough it's called a "museum," this facility, which is home to animals, a botanical garden, an aquarium and an art gallery – is more of a zoo. daily, with additional morning tours available on the weekends. The Ladder Tour, which is open to participants ages 12 and older, requires reservations and costs $50 per person. Note that children 4 and younger are not allowed in the cave. The Classic Cave Tour is available hourly and costs $22 for adults and $12 for kids ages 5 to 12. Located about 30 miles southeast of downtown Tucson in Vail, Arizona, Colossal Cave Mountain Park is open daily from 8 a.m. Reviewers praised the energy and knowledge of the tour guides, and said this is a great activity if you're traveling with kids. Recent visitors recommended taking a cave tour to enjoy a respite from the Arizona heat. For a real Western feel, visitors can take a trail ride (for an extra fee) from the stables located in the La Posta Quemada Ranch. Beyond the cave, the park features more than 2,400 acres that can be explored via hiking and biking trails, and it's brimming with wildlife. Those in search of an adventure may want to book the 90-minute Ladder Tour, which requires participants to navigate narrow passages and walk across rock bridges to access areas of the cave that have been restricted to most visitors since the 1950s. The 40-minute Classic Cave Tour requires participants to descend six stories (via approximately 360 stairs) for a half-mile guided walk that features stories of the cave's history and lore (including tales of ghosts and robbers) and geological wonders like stalactites and stalagmites. Visitors interested in touring the cave have two options: the Classic Cave Tour and the Ladder Tour. Today, the cave, which is now equipped with stairs and lights, is a tourist attraction that's featured on the National Register of Historic Places. The Colossal Cave was discovered in 1879 by Solomon Lick, a local rancher. Old Spanish Trail in Vail.Take a hint from the desert animals and head underground during the heat of the day. Even without a stash of gold, though, Colossal Cave is a treasure worth seeing.Ĭolossal Cave Mountain Park is located at 16721 E. If they did, he said, it's never been found, and park personnel have extensively explored the cave. Our tour guide addressed one popular legend: that bandits hid a stash of gold somewhere in Colossal Cave. More extensive tours that utilize CCC ladders and rock-climbing techniques also are available. The basic tour, on which we were joined by three others on a rainy Sunday morning, follows a half-mile loop and includes information about the cave's history, geology and legends. CCC crews also built the walkways inside the cavern, where the temperature stays in the low 70s year-round. Many of its rock formations were broken off to be sold as curiosities.īut Colossal Cave is still a spectacular place to visit, starting with the above-ground facilities constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. In contrast, Colossal Cave was used for storage by the Hohokam people about a century ago, and after white men discovered it in the late 1800s, it became a hideout for bandits and a target for treasure hunters. No one had ventured into Kartchner Caverns before its discovery in the 1970s, and its designation as a state park has kept it in pristine condition. The other big difference is the caves' human histories. Colossal Cave no longer has water flowing, although it's not technically a "dead" cave - a bit of monsoon runoff trickled into the cave this summer, the first time that's happened in 12 years, our guide said. For one, water continues to flow into Kartchner Caverns, meaning that cave's rock formations continue to grow. On an hourlong tour past the cave's stalactites, stalagmites and other unique formations, we learned while Colossal Cave is similar to Kartchner Caverns in many ways, there also are important differences between the two caverns. Having visited Kartchner Caverns State Park last year, we decided to check out another well-known cavern in the area: Colossal Cave Mountain Park, located east of Tucson. On the way back from a recent Arizona Highways assignment in Southeastern Arizona, my wife and I were looking for something to do in the Tucson area.
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