into the Underworld

In the 1960’s, a Texas farmer found a massive sinkhole on his property. He called the authorities, who in turned had a couple local scientists come out to explore. Drilling a hole down into the earth led to the eventual discovery of Natural Bridge Caverns, outside of San Antonio, Texas.


I ventured onto both the Discovery & the Hidden Passages tours. Both go down nine stories into our underworld. With all of the recent rains, it was a symphony of nature’s music as water droplets fell from the otherworldly stalactites, the water pooling and rushing at our feet down into Hades depths.

There are only two places in the entire world where humans can experience total darkness : the bottom of the ocean and immersed one hundred and eighty feet down inside a cave. I experience the latter, and with eyesight temporarily removed my other senses are heightened, akin to a bat and the other creatures that have found a way to survive in this existence.

The tangled and twisted formations play with your mind, bending reality into science fiction. Objects become more than just sediment building over a millennia. A living force grows before you.

I trip through the light fantastic as one’s imagination creates in the Underworld of the caverns.

Wench, bring my ale, what say you?
