Part 2, The Cleanup Detail
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As the rooky on the team, I was closely watched. It is my policy to not have identifiable photos of anyone on my websites. But I guess since this is me it is OK. The descent was rather steep into the Lower Caverns:
The Lower Caverns is not nearly as elaborately decorated by Mother Nature as the main caverns,
but they are by no means lacking in interesting formations, as these 'lions tails' show:
It was amazing how fast experienced people walked, looking down to always be sure they were stepping within the marked trail. My tendency was to gawk and misstep, but I was corrected, gently.
And here is a very good reason for all that caution. Parts of the floor are extremely fragile, and breaking through one layer of this floor into the next would create a hole that will perhaps never mend!
And, here is what we had to clean up: mud everywhere where there should not be any! The red tape shows where tour groups are supposed to walk, except that it is not possible to see the trail under mud. Clean we did, a tedious job. Not at all glamorous, hands and knees with sponges and buckets carefully removing mud.
Once we got some of the mud out of these shallow depressions, we uncovered calcite pearls that grow as water moves in and partially, slowly, evaporates out allowing a very quiescent precipitation that makes for these little pearls. Mud keeps them from growing. Mud has to be removed.
Go to Next Carlsbad Cleanup Page