Explore The Park!
The
Tour of Colossal Cave
The
tour route is a half mile long and takes about 45-50 minutes to complete. As
your guide relates the Cave's history, legends, and geology, you walk down and
back up about six and a half stories and see beautiful cave formations like
stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, boxwork, and helictites.
Tours are
given daily, year-round. They are not pre-scheduled, but you'll never wait
longer than 30 minutes after you purchase your ticket. You need no special
clothing in the Cave, which is always 70 degrees and dry. You are welcome to
take pictures inside - you'll want to use high-speed film and a flash unit for
cameras, or a candlelight setting for videocams.
The
Butterfly Garden
A
colorful retreat where dreams take wing...
The Butterfly Garden at Colossal Cave Mountain Park is carefully
designed to provide for the full life cycle of butterflies. There are larval
food plants for the caterpillars, nectar to sustain the adults, shade and
camouflage for protection from predators—and there's even a special spot for
their puddle parties! A haven for butterflies, it is also a place of rest,
entertainment, and education for the human guests that visit! The plants are
all native varieties
The cave is
called "dry" or "dormant" which
means that, due to a lack of water, the formations are not growing right now.
Colossal Cave, which is on the
National Register of Historic Places, had been used for centuries by
prehistoric peoples when it was "discovered" in 1879. Since then it
has been the object of interest and attention by people ranging from train robbers to a President of the University of Arizona. The first tours
were taken through the unimproved Cave in 1923, tours which involved ropes and
lanterns.
Thanks to
the Civilian Conservation Corps, who constructed the buildings, walkways, and wiring in
the mid-1930's, today's tours are very comfortable. The hand-set flagstone
walkways and handrails are exactly as installed by the CCC. These days,
however, Colossal Cave is wearing new
lights and is more breathtakingly beautiful than ever before. (We're proud to
say that the lights are energy-saving compact fluorescents.)
The first
person lived in Colossal Cave Mountain Park over a thousand
years ago. Around 900 A.D. the Hohokam Indians formed
a thriving community, farming in the valley below Colossal Cave and using the Cave
itself for shelter, storage, and as a shrine.
That fact hadn't struck home when we started researching the history of the
Park. What we did start seeing more and more clearly was that the histories of
the two seemingly disparate parts of the Park-a ranch and a cave-were closely
aligned, were even shared, throughout the entire span of time we studied. And
that span of time proved to be over a millennium
c.
900-1450 A.D. Hohokam Indians use Colossal Cave as well as numerous
other sites in Colossal Cave Mountain Park. One of the ways
they use the Cave is as a shrine.
c. 1450-1880 A.D. Sobaipuri
Indians use Colossal Cave; subsequently, it
appears also to have been used by the Apache and the Papago
(now Tohono O'odham).
 Colossal Cave
Mountain Park
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An
Attention-Grabbing Experience
Artifacts
confirm that Colossal Cave was used as shelter by the ancient Hohokam Indians
from about 900 through 1450 AD. The peaceful Indians farmed the valley below
the cave, which about a thousand years later became known as La Posta Quemada Ranch. Today the
cave and ranch are united as Colossal Cave Mountain Park, a historical destination and educational outreach
for school children.
A tour through Colossal Cave is by itself an attention-grabbing experience where
natural formations were formed over millions of years. The stalactites,
stalagmites and majestic columns were created by slow-seeping ground water
through the limestone ceilings. As arid conditions evolved, Colossal Cave became totally dry ,
stopping the growth of new formations. Interestingly, although outside summer
temperatures can become quite high in the desert area,
the temperature inside Colossal Cave is always a cool 70 degrees Fahrenheit year-round.
Colossal Cave has never been fully explored. Although there are an
estimated 39 miles of cave tunnels, it took over two years to map just two
miles of passageway where tours penetrate six stories deep into the cave.
Visitors can choose from ongoing daily “generic
tours” or can arrange more adventurous tours through darkened more
narrow passages requiring hardhats and good physical fitness. There are even “candlelight tours” where each visitor is
given a lighted candle to experience the cave as the Hohokam
did over a thousand years ago without electric-powered lights.
Officially,
Colossal Cave was discovered by Soloman Lick in 1879. While searching for stray cows on the vast ranch, he accidentally
came upon its narrow opening. That same entrance has been enlarged within a
modern setting that overlooks the panoramic views of La Posta
Quemada Ranch into over 2,000 acres of Colossal Cave Mountain Park.
There are actually two caves. The
first of course is Colossal Cave which visitors tour daily. The other is “Arkenstone”, a
“live cave” which continues to
grow formations. Arkenstone has been designated a research
site and access is limited to only scientific researchers. A collection of
photographs by Randy Gruss at the La Posta Quemada Ranch Museum gives
the public amazing views of the beauty inside Arkenstone Cave.
The “cowboy days” in the late 1800s spawns stories of train robbers and escaped convicts
that used the caves as a hiding place. Perhaps the most famous were John Maier
and Josiah “Kid” Smith who were
eventually shot by the Wells Fargo Messenger, J. Ernest Smith. A third bandit
of the group that had robbed a train near El Paso named George Green was captured and sentenced to five
years at the Yuma
Arizona Territorial Prison.
La Posta
Quemada Ranch has been a working ranch since the mid
1870s. The Southern Pacific Line operated a stagecoach station at the ranch
that was burned in 1875. Hence, the Posta Quemada name, which means “burnt station”. Today the ranch includes an active museum
to promote public education and cultural history. Visitors will enjoy the
artifacts with information on past indigenous cultures.
Visitors to Colossal Cave and the
ranch which is just 22 miles southeast of Tucson Arizona
offers many ways to explore the park including trail rides, hayrides, cattle
drives, cowboy style cookouts and pack trips through unspoiled Sonoran Desert nature. It’s a great way for groups and
families who visit the part to experience the Colossal Cave and great outdoor recreation as well. When visiting,
make sure to see the Desert Tortoise Exhibit. Also see the Butterfly Garden, a colorful haven of different species that
highlights the full lifecycle of butterflies.
There are many motels in Tucson and nearby Benson Arizona that are
conveniently located to Colossal Cave. Please visit the Colossal
Cave Mountain Park website for more interesting insight into the
history of the cave and ranch. There you will find a Colossal Cave online gift shop, detailed
directions and contacts to arrange group tours and outdoor recreational
enjoyment.
Colossal
Cave Mountain Park
Possibly the world's
largest dry cavern, it has not yet been explored to the end. Formed of dry
limestone, it is rumored that many outlaws stashed their gold here. The tale is
often told of Phil Carver, a bank robber who supposedly stored $60,000 in gold
in the cave back in 1879. After serving a long term in Yuma prison, it is said he returned to
the cave and disappeared.
It's always perfect weather for touring Colossal Cave, just twenty two miles southeast of
Tucson, Arizona. One of the largest dry caves in North America, it maintains a pleasant seventy
degrees Fahrenheit temperature year-around. Located in the Rincon Mountains at an elevation of three thousand
seven hundred feet, the entrance commands a panoramic view of the Sonoran Desert. The cave is not fully explored,
but scientists estimate that there are at least thirty nine miles of natural
tunnels inside the cavern. Due to the enormously complex three-dimensional
maze, it took over two years to map the two miles of passageway that are fully
explored.
Groundwater seeping through the Escabrosa limestone
formed the cave. Over millions of years, stalactites, stalagmites, columns and
draperies formed slowly from water dripping from the ceiling. As the climate
became more arid, the cave gradually dried up. Today, Colossal Cave is "dry," or dormant, and
the formations are no longer growing.
Colossal Cave Mountain Park is listed on the National Register
of Historic Places, and it certainly has a history. The cave was officially
"discovered" in 1879, but artifacts and soot-blackened ceilings
testify to use by prehistoric cultures. Recent studies show it once served as a
Hohokam shrine.
Deep inside the cave, tour guides explain how the cave formed, point out the
beautiful formations, and tell the "Bandit Legend," the favorite part
of the tour for many guests. According to the legend, the cavern served as a
bandit hideout twice in 1887, after two exciting train robberies. In one
holdup, the robbers disconnected the train's engine, mail and express cars and
took off for Tucson, leaving the rest of the train and
passengers stranded in the desert. In the second robbery, the bandits turned
the locomotive over on its side with the engineer still in it. Up to sixty
thousand dollars was hidden away in the cave then later retrieved by one of the
robbers. Wells Fargo never did reveal exactly how much money was actually
stolen.
You may arrive at Colossal Cave by way of Old Spanish Trail, 12
miles south of the Saguaro National monument. There is freeway access as well,
but it's not nearly as nice a drive.
More information contact: 520-647-7275 or www.colossalcave.com
WE'RE OPEN EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR!
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PARK HOURS
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Summer hours (March 16 - September 15)
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Mondays through Saturdays:
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8am-6pm
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Sundays and Holidays:
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8am-7pm
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Winter hours (September 16 - March 15)
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Mondays through Saturdays:
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9am-5pm
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Sundays and Holidays:
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9am-6pm
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Daily Park Admission Fees
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Auto:
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$3.00
($1.00 per person over 6 people)
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Motorcycle:
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$2.00
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Tour Bus:
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$1.00
per person
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Bicycle:
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$1.00
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School Busses:
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Free
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Annual Passes are also available.
Please call (520) 647-7275 for more pricing information
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 R.Gruss
900-1450 AD:
The Hohokam
Indians left
this mortar in the Cave.
Mortars were sometimes used to powder colored clays for pigments to paint
their pottery or to grind herbs and hard-coated seeds.
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The cave is called
"dry" or "dormant" which means
that, due to a lack of water, the formations are not growing right now.
Colossal Cave, which is on the National Register
of Historic Places, had been used for centuries by prehistoric peoples when
it was "discovered" in 1879. Since then it has been the object of
interest and attention by people ranging from train robbers to a President of the University of Arizona. The first tours were taken
through the unimproved Cave in 1923, tours which involved ropes and lanterns.
Thanks to the Civilian
Conservation Corps, who constructed the
buildings, walkways, and wiring in the mid-1930's, today's tours are very
comfortable. The hand-set flagstone walkways and handrails are exactly as
installed by the CCC. These days, however, Colossal Cave is wearing new lights and is more
breathtakingly beautiful than ever before. (We're proud to say that the
lights are energy-saving compact fluorescents.)
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