Tuesday, February 23, 2010

What a "Colossal" Idea!


We finally got away from the rain, the sun was back today, but it only got up to about 60 degrees F. so it was a bit cool. By mid morning we had decided it was time to get out for some exercise, so we thought we would head up to Colossal Caves Mountain Park. This is on the east side of Tucson, about 15 miles out, but still located in the Rincon Mountain Range. The park as a couple sets of caves, an overnight campground, and a museum, and horse back riding ranch for all the cowboys out there.

As mentioned it was a bit cool, and we had snow in the upper altitudes instead of rain. Here is something you will not see every day.... a saguaro cactus on the desert floor and snow in the Rincon Mountains behind...


This is the museum and gift shop in the park, also a small snack bar that was closed for the winter season...



If any of you have been to a wedding lately, they always seem to play the song "Save a horse, ride a COWBOY!"....... need I say anymore other than the picture below....




This whole area is very western and cowboys play a big part in the history here along with the Indians of the West. Here is how they make Stop signs here....


We decided to go to the museum first, and Judy let this guy into the building with us.... he seemed quite at home....


This is a clay pot that was made by the Indians and dates back to 900 A.D. It was found and recovered in the caves....

There is a very large horse ranch in the park, and the trails look great. You can go out for the whole day. Nice setting in the mountains.

I wanted to drive through the overnight camping area just to check it out. The sites are very small and we would have problems getting our rig into them, but I did find this saguaro that I talked Judy into taking my picture in front of... now my wallpaper.

We made our way up to the caves, and the view from the parking lot was nice, lots of cactus and mountains, and ya, some Arizona blue sky... endless...

Judy on the pathway from the parking lot up to the entrance of the caves...

The big entrance to the caves... I have never been in caves like this in my life... very unusual. As soon as you get in the air is very warm... it is always 71 degrees F. inside, summer and winter, it never changes. These are also dry caves, very little water inside. They have improved this set of caves that they let the public in. Cost $11.00. There is stone walkways and hand rails to follow. You actually walk about a 1/2 mile inside the mountain, and they have a name for every type of rock formation you see and just don't ask me to name them, they are beyond my memory, and I did not take notes, and I couldn't spell them anyways...

Down we go....

lots of rock....

Here those dangly things from the cave ceiling met the ones coming up from the floor to make a column....

We had about 15 people on our tour with a nice tour guide... Jenn. There were some large caverns we went into...

Rock on....

It is hard to get good pictures with the lighting inside the caves, and I had to use our small camera as I forgot the battery for my big camera at the RV on the charger.... oh, and did I tell you as we were looking around on the balcony of the main entrance building into the caves, I tripped on a wood stump on the floor and took a header.... yikes... worst was my hand hitting the stone floor, but it was OK.... the camera went about 30 feet and ended up in about 4 pieces, but we put it back together and it still works... Oh boy, it is tuff being a tourist sometimes...

A good day overall at the caves, they were kind of neat!

We headed home and got ready to go out for dinner with about 6 other couples from the Resort. We are going to a cowboy style restaurant and you will see pics tomorrow night on this.

Till tomorrow....

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