Colossal cave Mountain park

The Colossal cave in Arizona is part of a large cave system. The cave was first used by the Hohokam and Apache Indians, but is was later rediscovered in 1879 when the owner of a nearby hotel, Solomon Lick, was looking for stray cattle and saw the entrance of the cave. During it's early times the cave was used as a guano source. Guano manure was used back then as fertilizer due to its high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. When the guano deposit was extracted and the deposit exhausted the cave became abandoned.

Colossal cave is often classified as a "dry" cave or a Karst cave. This means that the cave is dead or dry and no more water depositing limestone goes through it sculpting perfect stalactites and stalagmites. There is a "live" or "active" cave near by the colossal called Arkenstone cave. This second cave continue growing, is alive and that is why is only open for research and investigation.

The cave is only a part of the Colossal cave Mountain park, there are an estimated 39 miles of tunnels, but after two years of mapping the caves only two miles of passageway have been mapped and are available to the general public through different tours. Some think this is one of the reasons why the cave have spawned many cowboys and robbers stories, telling tales of train robbers that seek refuges inside the colossal stone maze, to hide from the good cowboys.

Part of the Mountain park attractions is a working ranch called "La posta quemada ranch". This ranch got its particular name because it used to be a stagecoach station that burned down in 1875 (La Posta Quemada is the Spanish translation for 'the burn station'). Nowadays the ranch is a museum and beside the Colossal cave it offers trail rides, hayrides, cattle drives, cowboy style cookouts and pack trips through the Sonora Desert.

Colossal cave Mountain park

Menu