Part 3, The Lower Caverns
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After moving through a large room where people in the main cavern could look down on us, we entered this type of narrow defile and seemingly moved through such cracks for the next few hours. It was an interesting thing for me to actually be able to sense some degree of solitude here, a small crowd of very friendly souls did not make me feel at all as if in a crowd. The group was very interested in seeing what there was to see, and was respectfully quiet, respectful of the awe all of us wanted to feel and did feel in this natural masterpiece.
Remnants of mummified bats were plentiful, as were hard reminders of why a hard hat was needed. We were sternly reminded, however, that we were a restoration tour, and the sound of helmets crunching delicate formations was not in keeping with our mission, neither was grabbing for handholds where damage could be done.
At several places I attempted non-flash pictures, and discovered the same type of rounded dust-objects depositing on my lens as I had seen in Coronado Cave. How dust, in near-saturated air with little movement, creates rounded structures such as these is a mystery to me. It recalls some faint memories from physical and bio- chemistry, something to do with colloidal suspensions and surface electric charge being balanced through assuming a specific shape.
