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una nueva publicación semanal con noticias Volume 13, Number 48| Jan. 6-12, 2022 locales en español.
James Steindler begins to understand why people would willingly crawl around underground — to enjoy the solitude and beauty of hard-to-get-to places like the Glenwood Caverns' Black Grotto. Photo by Will Grandbois
Digging the dark By James Steindler Sopris Sun Staff
Sometimes it takes friends to get you out of your comfort zone. It takes even better ones to get you to cross that proverbial boundary while at your side every step of the way. So, with a little help from my friends, for 2022 I tried something new: caving. Jan. 2, was an especially brisk morning after nearly a week straight of snowfall in the Rockies. My boyfriend and I awoke and began preparing for an underground expedition. None other than Will Grandbois, The Sopris Sun’s former editor and current graphic designer, was to guide us on our maiden voyage into the depths of the earth.
We met Grandbois at the base of the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park’s gondola and we boarded promptly with no others in line. We set off for the top of the mountain and the mouth of the cave, dubbed the Borehole Entrance. For someone who hasn’t been to Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park since it first opened (and before there was a gondola), the attraction appears to have transformed into a quasi-North Pole. Tourists bustled to and fro with hot chocolate in hand. We meandered around the jolly sightseers, but nevertheless stood out in our caving gear. We entered industrial double doors and walked down the Borehole Entrance hallway (like astronauts about to board a rocketship) and ended up in the largest room of the underground maze, known as “The Barn.” There, a tour group ahead of us used the designated stairwell with sconces lighting the way; we did our best not to disturb them. We weren’t taking the same path as these plain-clothed, helmetless visitors. Instead, we crossed a rope and descended a steep shoot where there were no wired lighting fixtures. The passages took us deeper and deeper into the mountain. At a certain point it was difficult to discern which way was up and which was down. We crawled, slithered and wriggled through tight spaces formed by rock that had fallen within the cave ages ago.
At one point, our fearless leader got onto his stomach and went headfirst into an opening, which seemed to lead downwards… I hesitated, but then followed suit. The other side opened into a large room with stalagmites and stalactites reaching for one another from floor to ceiling. It took my breath away. We’d reached the Black Grotto. After settling into the awe-striking magic of the place, we had a seat to behold its magnificence. The speleothems — formations from “cave bacon” and “popcorn” to the stalagmites and stalactites — dazzled the grotto. The temperature was ideal at about 50 degrees (the average annual temperature of the exterior region) which the cave maintains throughout the year. There are not many living organisms in these particular caves, other than pseudoscorpions (which are less than a quarter inch long), according to our guide. However, we did come across a packrat’s remains that were marked and not to be disturbed. “Going dark!” Grandbois warned. Then, in an instant, not a speck of light or even a shadow was visible. Down in the bowels of the earth it is pitch black. Continued on page 14