By Keeley Porter, AAMN Youth Activities Director
On Saturday, February 24, the Alamo Area Chapter Junior Master Naturalist class took a speleology field trip to Cascade Caverns Nature Reserve just outside of Boerne. Speleology is the scientific study of caves. The students learned about “Life Downunder”! During their time as Junior Master Naturalists, the students have been introduced to all types of nature on the surface, in the water, and in the air, but they had no idea that there was life deep underground!
According to cascadecaverns.com, the Lipan Apache people discovered Cascade Caverns® in the 1700s. They left behind artifacts, which are still visible today. In the 1840s, Kendall County youth rediscovered the cave and carved their initials into stalactites in the first room. Cascade Caverns® became the first “private-touring” cave in Texas back in the 1870’s and was opened to the public in 1932.
The pictures below show the surface scenario. Our group walked down to the cave entrance, and then saw the actual entrance – a big, dark hole in the ground! We were led by Stingray, an amazing cave guide with a dry sense of humor. The faces of the young students show a little apprehension as they’re not sure what to expect except bats and darkness, which can be a bit nerve-wracking for anyone, but Stingray is an expert at engaging youngsters and keeping their attention.
Before we descended into the cave, Stingray passed out small flashlights to the students, so they felt more secure about heading into the unknown by being able to illuminate the path ahead. The flashlights also helped the students look more closely at the cave formations while parents could use their cell phones with lights if needed.
Once we gathered at the foot of the stone stairs, the looks of trepidation disappeared and were replaced by huge grins and exclamations of excitement. The first sight to greet our eyes was a serene pool. I think we all wanted to “test the waters” but we were all under strict instructions to not touch anything! At this point, we were 132 feet underground, and it was beautiful! The air felt so clean that even those suffering from allergies found that all their passages cleared and they could breathe freely. Plus, the cooler temperature was a bonus (about 60° F).
A couple of the younger students had been concerned about being in close quarters with bats. They had visions of vampires and bats getting caught in their hair. Stingray explained that the bat residents are microbats and the smallest bat species in our part of the country. The bats in the caverns are tricolor bats, and they are called that because of their unique, tricolored fur. When one of the students asked if we’d see any bats, Stingray told her to look up and about 12 inches above her head, was a tiny, light brown fur ball on the ceiling! Stingray said he fondly refers to them as ‘chicken nuggets’ because that’s the size of them! Any fear of the cave bats dissipated immediately, and we had to be reminded not to touch them, even if they were so cute. Stingray said there are usually just over 200 bats in the cave. They sleep for about 2 weeks at a time, wake up to go find food, then return to roost. They don’t form a colony like the Mexican free-tails. The tricolors were dotted all over the place on the walls and ceiling. Stingray said all the bats are called Bruce, so we would be walking and hear the kids saying, “there’s Bruce 115,” which was fun, plus it kept them constantly looking all around.
We saw quite a few salamanders, which are all called Gerry. They were all in the water and hard to spot. The eyes of the students were much sharper than those of the adults, so we followed them to see what they could discover. The cave crickets had antennae about two or three times the length of their bodies!
Cascade Caverns are “living” caves with new formations developing constantly. The formations in the upper caverns were fascinating, and some are millions of years old. We saw dripping soda straws, which are the beginning stages of stalactites, as well as some mature formations. The lower caverns have stalagmites, but that’s a different tour. The drapes were magnificent – they almost looked like prehistoric rock art!
We were all so entranced by the amazing world underground and couldn’t believe how the time flew by. The Junior Master Naturalist students all emerged with a much better understanding of how life can be found everywhere and how nature adapts to suit the environment. Their smiles said it all, and I even received a lovely message from one of the students to say it was the best field trip ever!
