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!
