Day 53 - Down in a Hole

I say my goodbyes to my aunt & uncle, and the town of Tucson, then head Southwest.  This next part of the trip was tricky.  With winter starting to clamp down on the Northern hemisphere, the mountainous regions of even the Southern US desert were seeing snow.  I also needed to be in Phoenix in 18 days, so I was looking at several routes to plan the time.

The first stop was a no-brainer.  I'd read about this place before coming to Tucson, and I couldn't miss it.  Just 55 miles from Tucson is Kartchner Caverns State Park.  As the name implies, they have caverns that you can tour.  The downside is that they don't allow cameras on the tours - and the cost is $23.  This is unfortunate, as the scenery was spectacular.  Photography is only allowed once per year, and the cost is $250 per person.  I found this odd.  They don't allow photography, but they do if you have money?  It's true, everything in the US is for sale for the right price.  Here is a link to pictures taken by others.

I took "Big Room" tour.  The name here is deceiving.  True, the site you tour is one big room, but you can't see across it's entirety.  There are rock outcroppings everywhere that extend almost to the ceiling and block your view of the entire room.  In fact if you weren't informed it was one single room, you would never have guessed.

All crabbing aside, it was a decent tour.  Worth the $23 for an individual, but that's almost a C-note for a family of four.  Can't recommend it for that cost.

They also had RV campground, so I decided to stay a few nights.  There were a few things in the area I wanted to explore.

Night falling on Kartchner