Spelunking in Texas caves should be on everyone’s list if you live in or travel through the state.
Have you ever been spelunking? No? What about caving? As it turns out, they’re the same thing. In North America, we call cave exploring spelunking. I was confused at first, but both mean to explore caves. In the UK, they call it potholing. I’m from Michigan – to us, potholing means getting your car tire stuck in a massive hole from a busted road the government didn’t fix.
I had to look up the history of the words because, here in Texas where there are thousands of caves, it’s a point of contention. Cavers think “spelunkers” are amateurs. But everyone is an amateur at some point, so I’m fine with it.
Either way, call it caving, spelunking, or potholing. It’s the recreational pastime of exploring natural cave systems.
Texas Caves
Texas has a wealth of cave systems and caverns that go deep underground, forming an entirely new world. Many of these caves have huge, elaborate chambers, waterfalls and even bizarre fossils.
There are thousands of caves in Texas. Many are along the Balcones Fault Line between Austin and San Antonio and were formed from sinkholes and disintegrating karst rock. That, in combination with rainwater over thousands of years, has formed unbelievable underground formations.
Visiting Natural Bridge Caverns in San Antonio
The Natural Bridge Caverns are a commercial cave system, with only guided tours and a series of touristy amenities, but I didn’t let that stop me.
I spent $35 to take two different cave tours and it was money I’d part with again happily.
This was my first time exploring a cave system, though not the first time I’d tried. I attempted to go caving once at a “Mammoth Cave” in Idaho, but I never made it past the first few feet. There, they gave me a lantern and a “good luck.” That cave was nothing like the Natural Bridge Caverns though. It was just a huge hole in the ground and what I was about to explore was anything but.
Arrival at the Cave
When I pulled into the vast parking lot there were already dozens of cars there.
I walked around a bit while waiting for my tour and there were a few dozen people and a lot of kids milling about. People also come here for the ziplines and rope bridges and rock climbing set up on the property. Many adults don’t want to go into the caves because it’s quite a bit of stairs down into them – which isn’t a problem, but the way up is daunting.
Cave tour
I signed up to explore two different Texas caves that day. Each tour had about a dozen people in them. We all walked down into the caves in a single file line. As I usually do as the only solo participant, I paired up with the tour guide, Alexis.
What I saw when I entered these caves is hard to describe. The caves themselves were huge – hundreds of feet deep and wide. Entire worlds lay underground, wholly hidden from the surface. Inside the cave, it was moist and humidity was over 90 percent. It was hot too.
There were massive stalactites and stalagmites – that grow down from the ceiling and up from the floor. There were “soda straws,” which were hollow and “drapery,” which were thin transparent drapes and there were “flowstones” that looked like coral.
These things combined amid the narrow tunnels, pools of water, and steep pathways into the darkness. I felt like we were exploring another planet. We were. I must have said, “Oh my God, wow,” 100 times.
The limestone was so smooth in some areas that it looked like bone. In other places, the water droplets – calcitrate – formed crystals. It was otherworldly.
Do you know what I like about a super deep and dark cave? There are almost no bugs. None. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Bugs can’t live in that environment. It was comforting to know that after my recent “worm incident,” I didn’t have to deal with any creepy crawlers.
Hello Darkness
At one point, deep into a cave system about 30 minutes’ walk underground, the tour guide prepared us for the lights to go out. There were jitters among my fellow cave dwellers. My breathing became shallow. As a child, I was claustrophobic, and suddenly, it seemed hard to breathe.
It was, in fact, hard to breathe. Because there are only a few narrow entryways into the caves, the carbon dioxide is high. Plus, the carbon movement in the cave systems is what creates the formations.
High, but not dangerous. Not unless you overthink it and give yourself a panic attack. Which, of course, you wouldn’t do unless someone turned out the lights and left you there.
Lights Out
Alexis had us all sit down on some natural benches and told us not to move. When people try to move around inside a cave in the pitch black, well, it doesn’t end well.
Then the lights went out. I heard gasps. The guide, to keep us comfortable, kept talking, telling us about the cave. I don’t know what she said because my ears seemed to have stopped working with my eyes. I was entirely blind. Completely and entirely.
After a minute, I reacclimated and tried to wave my hand in front of my face. Nothing. I couldn’t even be sure how close to my face my hand was and had trouble gauging until I touched my nose and scared myself. They heard me gasp then.
Then I heard the guide again. She was saying that places on the surface try to replicate total darkness, but they can’t. They’re just really, really dark, but not total darkness.
If you’ve ever been in extreme darkness before, you know that eventually, your eyes will acclimate and you’ll be able to see some shapes. Not so, here. There were no points of lights to refract off. There would be no sight.
Like the Bottom of the Ocean
Alexis said the only other place on earth besides deeps caves with total darkness is at the ocean’s bottom. I tried not to think about that. Total darkness without any air well … that reminded me that I was about to have a panic attack.
There, in the darkness, I tried to focus on my breathing.
In the caves, it was super wet and I could hear water drip. Occasionally a drop fell on me. Alexis said it takes days or years for the water to work its way from the surface. These caves have been and would be here for all time. We people would come and go a million times and the caves would still exist, growing and forming.
Getting Out of the Cave
She turned on the lights and I breathed a sigh of relief.
There was only one opening into this cave, so we had to backtrack the way we came and that meant hiking up 185 steps. I was sweating bullets by the time I was done. Usually, it’s just me sweating like that, but this time I was not alone.
Cave Crawling
Alexis showed me pictures of her doing one of the “adventure tours” they lead in the caves, too, for small groups. In those, you can crawl through tunnels and rappel from the cave walls, be lowered into holes.
I was immediately interested, but you need at least two people to participate, like far too many tours. The only way a solo person could participate is if they pay for two people for one person. It’s an injustice that single travelers must face all the time. Many tour companies require you to buy at least two tickets, even if you’re only one person and it’s a group adventure.
Why don’t they say this is the price for one, you get a discount for two or more? Its discrimination against single people is what it is. But that’s another post. No adventure caving for me at this location, but maybe another.
Anyway, these Texas caves were really, really cool. Highly recommend. Just be ready to sweat and maybe panic. But that’s what happens when you go to another planet.
