Sonora Things to Do

The early eplorers didn't had the luxury we have today. Back then there were no cut paths so they often had to use head lamps and crawl deep underground to find the beauties awaiting them beneath. Today, you can litteraly walk through most of the worthwhile halls. It has damaged the cave a bit, but not as much as you may believe.

You'll have to expand the picture to see this one... Notice the tiny hollow stalagtites? Yeap, these are known as straws. I've seen them in other caves before. Legend has it that if you where to cut one out you'll be able to use them as a straw since they're hollow (hence the name).

This is for all the Star Treks fans out there... doesn't thise picture remind you of the cute tribbles? In reality, these is a unique cavern formation that was partially formed underwater. In this particular picture, you can witness the diestinctive waterline that forced the change in environment from the ball-like formations that are formed underwater to the other formations above, which are formed above the water line.

Strip Bacon or Indian Chief headdress
This use to be 'the' icon of the caverns of Sonora. See, the imfamous formation ressembles an Indian Chief headdress, or for other hungry folks it resembles strip bacon. Unfortunately, the formation was forever damaged when a clumsy guide smached a piece off it while cleaning the tourist path. It's a sad lose indeed, a high price for development.

The Caverns of Sonora can boast about this beauty. It's the only natural forming crystal butterfly known in the world. It was formed by two helectites. By the way, there are thousands of helectites in this cavern. A helectite is a formation that defies gravity. Unlike a stalactite (grab 'tight' or you're fall to the ground) and a stalagmite ('mighty' climb from the ground up ahead of you) where gravity is a clear force behind them, helectites defy gravity and just stand out sideways from the walls of the cavern.

At the start of the tour, you will walk through several impresive cavern rooms with corral and popcorn like formations on the wall. More on the popcorn formations later, but for now, take a look at this amazing pic. It almost looks like the coral one encounters while scuba diving in the ocean.

Is it a vase or a couple kissing?
If anything, this tour is about opening your mind and expanding your imagination. So look at all the rocks and formations and try to link a common picture to what you're seeing. On this particular picture, I was reminded to the imfamous picture we've all probably seen. You know, the optical illussions in which the image seems to show two things at the same time. This picture looks like the imfamous vace, or is it a couple kissing?

The early explorers of the cavern used arrows to clearly mark the quickest route out of the cave. Most of this arrows are clearly visible today. So for those of you who are claustrophobic (person with a morbid fear of being closed in a confined space) you can rest assure that the exit is several arrows ahead :).