Touring Colossal Cave Mountain Park / November 1, 2013
Welcome to
Colossal Cave Mountain Park! This was our 3rd visit to the area, but it was the first time I have taken pictures to share. The first time, we came just to find some letterboxes in the park. The second was when Curtis’ dad came to visit in September. For this particular visit, we came back with the purpose of taking pictures of the park and the cave tour to help Curtis’ younger sister with a homework assignment on caves.
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Map of Colossal Cave Mountain Park in Tucson, Arizona
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Colossal Cave is located on the Southeast side of Tucson. There’s actually another popular cave that you can visit and tour East of Tucson called
Kartchner Caverns. How do the two caves differ? Colossal is considered a dormant cave, meaning it is dry and the formations are no longer changing naturally because it has no water source. Kartchner Caverns is alive, or wet. Because of this, Kartchner Caverns is much more protected than Colossal Caves. Some examples of this are that you aren’t allowed to take pictures in Kartchner Caverns. They also go to great measures to clean off areas that have been touched by humans.
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| Statue of CCC worker at the Colossal Cave Visitor Center |
Colossal Cave was also discovered before Kartchner Caverns. They have been toured much longer than Kartchner Caverns. The path that goes through the caves was built by the CCC.
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| The entrance for the cave tour |
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Both of the times that we have visited this cave, we have taken the main tour that lasts about 50 minutes. There are several other tours offered as well. The tours are offered year-round, and there is no need for making reservations prior to your visit. (Kartchner Caverns requires reserving tours ahead of time).
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| Mountain views from Colossal Cave Mountain Park |
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| Sesame Street Goes Western |
Fun fact: the movie “Sesame Street Goes Western” was filmed inside the cave. While taking the tour, our guide pointed out a few specific points where different scenes were filmed.
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| Pictures from inside Colossal Cave |
We began our guided tour with our group. There were some flights of stairs that we needed to climb down and up throughout the tour. The temperature inside the cave was cooler than the desert outside and could make for a good summer day activity.
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They called this rock the witch, and its nose points towards the exit to the cave
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| In “Sesame Street Goes Western,” the characters see the above rock and think it is a T-Rex head. |
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| After they see what they think is a T-rex, Big Bird goes running and makes this Big Bird sized hole. |
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| Where weddings were held inside the cave |
When the CCC was working on the cave, there were some workers who got engaged and wanted to get married, so they reserved the above section up a flight of stairs for weddings. You can still get married inside the cave today!
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They called the flat area the living room
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We enjoyed our visit to Colossal Cave and highly recommend visiting if you are in Southern Arizona. We took the 50 minute basic tour, but there are several other guided tours to choose from.
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