From Deep in the Sierras

I just got back from a caving trip of Hurricane Crawl, inside Sequoia National Park. I've been wanting to do this trip from more than a decade. Fewer than 100 people have entered this cave, so I felt very blessed to get access with the Park's Cave Specialist, Joel Despain.




It was a grueling trek with narrow passages some over 80 feet high with cascading flowstone of white and orange, grittering in the dark. Deep inside we found large rooms, some with pools, now seasonally dry like this one. The oscillations of top of the water level and the super concentration of dissolved calcite creates interesting textures and formations.

These beautiful formations are decorating part of ceiling of Pumpkin Palace. The photos hardly do them justice.