Black Chasm Caverns
By Jane
Haworth
Traveling along historic Hwy. 49 region there are many caverns and mines to explore; Mercer Caverns near Murphy’s, California Caverns at Cave City, the Gold Cliff Historic Mine at Angels Camp, the Sutter Gold Mine at Sutters Creek, and lastly the Black Chasm Cavern at Volcano that we chose to explore.
Our 50 minute walking tour took us down into a limestone cavern which was declared a National Natural Landmark in 1976 and only opened to the public in 2000. Descending through a series of narrow staircases with viewing platforms designed to give the best views without impacting the natural pristine environment, one voyages downward into this vertical cave. In the Colossal Room the platform almost seems to be suspended mid-air as you look down 80 feet to glimpse a jewel-like turquoise lake. Extruding from every wall different rock formations are highlighted including flowstone, draperies, stalactites and helictites fused together in a visual treat of nature’s beauty.
The very impressive Landmark Room holds some of most impressive, rare, and intriguing, enigmatic helictite formations which seem to defy gravity. They cluster together as delicate white stalactites but grow in all directions often as corkscrews and have been given names like Curly Fries, Butterflies, Ribbons or Saws. The mascot for Black Chasm Cavern is the Dragon after a delicate formation in the cave which appears to look like a small Chinese dragon. They affectionately named it Mushu.
Above ground kids love to explore the 3,000 foot gift store with all its rocks, jewelry, books, and nature related toys for sale. Outside the Visitor Center is a series of mining flumes that kept my kids focused for a long period of time gem-mining and gold panning. The store has available varying sized bags of dirt for gem-mining and it also has bags of gold which kids can then sift and pan using the water flumes. Not to panic, everyone is guaranteed to be a winner. Other exhibits inside include props used in the making of the Zion caves in The Matrix movies that were based on Black Chasm Caves, as they were unable to film inside due to the delicate nature of the cave environment.
For adventure seekers visiting Moaning Caverns you can combine the zip-line experience, a number of different adrenaline packed activities, and the chance to rappel down into the 165ft deep cavern. For families and younger children, the fascinating 45 minute guided walking tour will take you down 234 steps into the huge cavern, the largest vertical chamber open to the public in California. For the more adventurous adults and kids over twelve, try the Rappel Adventure where the adventurer has the opportunity to rappel down into the cavern attached to a climbing harness on a rope, and then you return to the surface using the spiral staircase. There's also the extreme adventure, the Underground Adventure Trip, that takes small groups on a three hour exploration of the unlit and undeveloped regions of the cave. This extreme adventure is definitely for the non-claustrophobic, fearless adults and older children.
Our excursion into the Gold Country had again been a successful one. The Gold Country is a great place to visit for adults and kids alike whether you are there to learn more of California’s history or to enjoy the magnificence of nature and California’s landscape.
Black Chasm Cavern
15701 Pioneer-Volcano Rd. Volcano, CA.
886 762 2837
209 736 2708
http://www.caverntours.com
Photo Courtesy Jane Haworth © 2008
© 2008 Jane Haworth