SADDLEBAG DISPATCHES
101
HISE COUNTY
STORY BY DOUG HOCKING
F
OR MANY YEARS, members of a secretive society have stalked the Arizona deserts in search of ocotillo, extending its spiny fingers toward crimson flowers like bloody nails twitching in the dry air. It thrives on karst. Where there is limestone, there are sinkholes, and some of
these exude the breath of the earth, revealing a path to a cave below. Caves form in limestone at the top of the water-table, as water acidic with carbonic acid from rotting surface vegetation penetrates the ground and dissolves the stone. As the water-table recedes, caverns are left behind. Water continues
to drip downward dissolving rock, and when it meets the open cavern, it evaporates, redepositing the stone as pencil thin soda straws or thickened stalactites. Where water drips to the cavern floor, a fried egg might form and grow into a stalagmite or eventually join with the stalactite above to form a column.
