ShowCaveBlog

In May a 3D photo exhibition with the name Underground of Enchantment will open at the Carlsbad Museum and Art Center. It shows 3d pictures of Lechuguilla Cave, located in the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Many of the photographs are from David De Roest, a Belgian photographer who specializes in 3D images. But there are also pictures of microbiologists working on discoveries from the cave as well as photographs from other caves.

Underground of Enchantment will open Saturday 07-MAY-2011, at the Carlsbad Museum and Art Center and will run through the summer. In autumn the exhibit will travel around New Mexico, Colorado and West Texas for 10 months. During summer 2012 the exhibit will be shown in the Visitor Center of Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

• Underground of Enchantment – Lechuguilla Cave
  (visited: 27-MAR-2011)
• States of the United States of America: Carlsbad Caverns National Park
  (visited: 27-MAR-2011)
• Caves of the United States of America: Lechuguilla
  (visited: 27-MAR-2011)

The Dinosaur Caves Park is located at Pismo Beach, California. It is a sea cave which was once operated as a show cave. Today it may be visited freely by kayak.
The cliff and the cave is a result of the erosion by the sea. This causes frequent collapses, a process which keeps the walls of the cliff steep. But as result the cliff line “moves” back. At Dinosaur Caves Park it has now reached the walkway on top of the cliff, so about 35m of the walkway had to be closed.
The public attention and the idea to protect the cliff by installing sea walls is actually a bad idea, as the erosion is the process which produces the cliff and the beach and cave below. We recommend to move the trail and benches instead.

That’s pretty rare: a show cave which is evacuated.
A burning car in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks caused a small vegetation fire on Friday 02-JUL-2010 around 13:30. The fire was reported immediately and four National Park Service fire engines and 13 firefighters responded to the fire. Law enforcement officers closed the Generals Highway through the park for about three hours. The fire was extinguished pretty soon and the burned car was removed around 17:00.
The evacuation of Crystal Cave was a precaution, a part of the park service procedure for fires.

We are pretty much astonished. This cave was closed to the public years ago, then opened on a very limited basis and finally a replica was built and inaugurated by the Spanish King. Then the cave was closed completely.

Now the Spanish ministry of culture had news for all tourists and art lovers: the original Altamira cave will be reopened! It seems it recovered too god from the further damages to keep it closed. Unlike Lascaux, which is probably already destroyed, Altamira has no problems with fungi or other threads. They did not give exact numbers but it sounded that the cave will be reopened on the limited basis it was before: a maximum of 160 visitors per day and a maximum time inside the cave per visitor. And we guess there will again be a reservation required, three years in advance…

The Bluegrass Underground is a weekly radio-concert series by 650 WSM-AM, an American country radio station. The concert series is internationally acclaimed. Now they partnered with Loblolly Ventures, the company of concert promoter Todd Mayo, the tv station WCTE-DTV (PBS) and Emmy award-winning producer Todd Jarrell. They develop the concert series for national television distribution.
What makes this event interesting for us, is the location: Volcano Room at Cumberland Caverns.
More info: WCTE to bring ‘Bluegrass Underground’ to national television

We read weird news from a cave in Nepal. Three foreign tourists, one Indian and two Korean, entered the sacred Gupteswor Mahadev Gufa on Wendsday 27-JAN-2010. Until Thursday 28-JAN-2010 they have not returned, so they presumably got lost in the cave.
The cave is said to be some three kilometres long. Actually this is a length given to most caves in this area, so we believe, it is another term for unbelievably long. However, the cave is in a semi wild state, there are narrow and low passages. It is much recommended to take an experienced guide along, but actually it is not necessary. Beginning Thursday morning, a rescue team of police plus local volunteers started to search the cave and surroundings.

Tourists go missing after entering cave in Pokhara

Smoke Hole Caverns is located in West Virginia, U.S.A.. Lately it has been the target of an arsonist. The first fire burned on the evening of 10-NOV-2009 and destroyed the apartment area above the restaurant. The second fire on 11-NOV-2009 at 5:00 in the morning destroyed the building housing the restaurant and gift shop. Items found in a trash can, which was also set on fire, are evidence that the fires were set deliberately.
The cave itself remains open, although there is no restaurant and gift shop any more.
Fires at W.Va. cave attraction ruled arson

Not long ago we made a page about a new cave in the U.S.A. which was developed as a show cave and promised to become a great cave. We added comments about the difficulties to book a tour during the first years. And now it celebrates its tenth anniversary.
We were impressed how long ago this cave was opened, and started to check how old showcaves.com is. We will post a blog entry about this soon.
However, our congratulations to Kartchner Cavern which seems to be not only an impressive cave, but also a successful example of nature awareness and careful cave management.

Oregon Cave will celebrate its 100th anniversary as a National Monument on 09-MAY-2009. Park guides will lead free cave tours all day.

The bats in the eastern States of the U.S.A. have a disease, which kills them by the thousands. It spreads across the States rapidly and its origin or modus operandi is unknown. The infected bats have a white nose, which is actually caused by a fungus growing in their face. It is unknown if the fungus is the cause or a result of the disease. But the disease was named White Nose Syndrome because of this. As a result of the epidemic spread of the disease, the wild caves in the whole area were now closed to the public and to cavers. The idea is to prevent the spreading by cavers who carry whatever causes the disease in their clothes or probably shoe soles.
This is actually a biologic topic, nevertheless there are some important points which are be important to any cave tourist:

1. At the moment show caves in the area are open to the public. Visitors do not get in direct contact with bats in such caves. However, this may change if the origin if the disease is further investigated.
2. All wild caves are closed, which includes all caves listed on showcaves.com for this area. Please respect the closure and do not enter those caves as long as they remain closed.
3. Spelunking tours will most likely be stopped too, but if you have booked or plan to book such trips you should contact the operator on this topic. If they take place we recommend to clean all equipment afterwards very careful before you visit another cave.
4. Foreign cave tourists, spelunkers and cavers who visit caves in the western United States should clean their clothes/equiment very careful before they return, do not spread the disease to your own country.

Obviously this are simple and basic precautions which are in effect as long as nothing is known about the disease.
For more info on the topic we recommend the Wikipedia page: White nose syndrome – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia