When I lived in California I had been to many hidden gems of this golden state. California is much more than amusement parks around Los Angeles, Golden Gate bridge, Lake Tahoe and Yosemite national park. It extends to badlands, high Sierras, wonderful waterfalls, forests studded with brown bears, sky kissing coastal redwoods, beautiful shorelines, caves, lakes and great cities! One such small hidden gem is Moaning Cavern in Calaveras County. ! It is a vertical cave chamber where one can go rappelling 165 ft down!
I visited this place and few other very interesting nearby places sometime last year which I am posting now! I have been to many caverns but Moaning cavern is amazing because of the rappelling experience. Those rock-mushrooms on the walls as you descend! To add to that in this trip, I camped at Calaveras Big Trees State Park and visited Natural Bridges where I swam across the cave, Columbia State Historic Park and drove all those 61 miles on Ebbetts Pass Scenic Byway where the elvation ranges between 4,000 to 8,7000ft! This area is surrounded by the Gold Rush towns, mountains and alpine valleys!
Well, the name sounds weird right? Of all ... Moaning ...The name comes from the moaning sound that comes out of the cave. It seems the even remains of prehistoric people were found here, it is believed that they might have got attracted to the moaning sound and fell into the cave! 30ft below the ground a large chamber opens up with its walls decorated with stalagmites and the ceiling with stalactites. Some of the draperies are so long and delicate that leaves the visitors in amazement.
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| Rock formations left to right- Chocolate waterfalls and the 100ft tall spiral stairway, The 25ft tall Igloo, draperies |
As one descends either by rappelling or climbing down the 100ft spiral staircase, there is a wonderful cluster of stalagmites that resemble huge mushrooms. At the bottom you could see the popular Igloo, a white 25ft tall rock formation which looked to me as a bald old man with long beard! I rappelled down then climbed up the spiral ladder (230 steps). I had some time to enjoy the rock formations in between. The friendly staff is ready to answer any of your questions.
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| Close ups |
The brown color is due to iron content in the water that flows into the cave. It was nice shade though. The color leads to naming the rock formations Chocolate Waterfalls! I was tempted to break a piece to eat! Well, caves are always great to explore but the rappelling part makes the tour very eventful!
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If you want pictures please ask me :)
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Scrapbook- A Travel Blog by Kusum Sanu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
True California is so much more than Hollywood and Disneyland :)
ReplyDeleteOh, I do agree with you and Photo Cache!! I've lived in California and my youngest daughter still lives there and there is so much beauty to see and enjoy!! Thanks for sharing these, Kusum, they are superb!!
ReplyDeleteHow gorgeous - amazing to see such beauty.
ReplyDeleteFascinating post! Both the images and the words. Fancy having giant mushrooms and a moaning sound coming from a cave!! Souonds scary but very tempting. I would love to go there..not sure if I would be brave enough though:)
ReplyDeleteThese cave formations are remarkable.
ReplyDeleteCheers - Stewart M - Melbourne
Beautiful cave shots. When I was very young my parents took me to the Carlsbad Caverns. It was the first time we all discovered my fear of heights. - Margy
ReplyDeleteNice to know about this. Those natural formations are spectacular.
ReplyDeletewow, I lvoe caves. This is beautiful. Thanks for sharing. :)
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