The boys had been studying caverns and speleothems in science and I thought it would be a fun field trip to take them to the Natural Bridge Caverns down by San Antonio. I didn’t really think it was a possibility though with all the littles and everything. It would have to be an overnight trip and that’s just more trouble than it’s worth with them. I mentioned it to Josh before he left to work one morning, just venting my frustration at not being able to go on a fun field trip right now. We said our goodbyes and I got started with our day with the kids. After about 20 minutes he walked back in the door and said I should take all “the bigs” down to the caverns myself for a field trip. He’d be happy to stay with “the littles” - overnight even! I was totally shocked but grateful for the gesture. I really didn’t want to leave him all alone with the three littles so I really didn’t think it was possible and told him to go back to work. He persisted though and finally managed to talk me into actually doing it! He rearranged his schedule so he could be home around lunchtime and I quickly booked a hotel room and packed my bag. I surprised the big kids and told them what we were doing and they were SO excited! Josh came home after I’d fed all the kids and put “the littles” to bed and we were off! It was a LONG drive but just having the three big kids was so EASY. And QUIET! Holy cow, what a difference. We managed to make it down to San Antonio safely and I only got lost 2 or 3 times! We settled in for the night at the hotel and then got up bright and early to head off to the caverns.
The kids bolted for the giant dinosaurs as soon as we got out of the car.
I purchased our tickets and we headed out to the patio to wait for our tour to leave. It was such a perfect day!
Then we walked down the trail to the entrance of the caverns.
Here’s the reason they named it Natural Bridge Caverns. This naturally formed bridge was left when the sinkhole we were standing in was formed and the entrance to the cavern was discovered here.
There is a touchstone at the entrance to the cavern so you get get all the “touching” out of your system before you go in. The kids took advantage of it, I passed - too many germy hands touching that thing before me. No thank you!
From here on it’s mostly going to be photos because I honestly can’t remember exactly what is in each picture. All of these were in the first (older) cavern we went to.
Maddie and I thought this one should be named The Leaning Tower of New Braunfels.
See the water splashing down towards the center of this next photo?
Same formation, different angle.
There was water dripping everywhere. No surprise though - that is how all these formations were created. Sometimes it was quite the shower though!
Can you see the face of the Terracotta Warrior? Each kid mentioned how this one looked like one of the warriors we saw.
Here’s a front view of that guy.
What goes down must go back up?
This is called the Emerald Pool. The water is actually perfectly clear but the light refracting through it gives the greenish hue. All the water in the caverns is pure and clean and totally drinkable. Or at least that’s what the guide said - I wasn’t going to take my chances. It makes sense though because the water is filtered through so many different layers before it reaches the caverns. They do have water fountains in the caves that are fed by the aquifer there.
Looking back on everything we saw.
Another cool face.
And then we emerged to the fresh, dry air!
We made the long walk back to the parking lot to have a little snack. I guess Cash got too tired?
That “ride” he talked the other two into didn’t last very long. I don’t think they even picked him up off the ground.
I got a good picture of these awesome kids. Man, I love them. I even like them most of the time! They are pretty fun to road trip with. :)
We made it back to the car and had some snacks before heading on our next tour.
This was the newer cavern and we hadn’t been on this tour before. (Several years ago, I think Cash was about 2ish?, we came down to San Antonio and did the cavern tour then too.)
The boys thought this formation looked like a monster mouth.
The soda straw formations in this cavern were unbelievable! They are super thin and hollow, like a straw, so they are very fragile. Most of the ones in the other cavern have broken off but these are really long since they’ve had longer to develop and there’s not as much traffic through here.
This formation is kind of hard to see because it was pretty far away from the path and this whole cave isn’t lit as well as the other one, but it was a really cool formation called the “Pincushion”. If you look closely at the section that is the whitest there are little tiny formations growing in all directions like pins sticking out of a pincushion. It’s not a very common type of formation.
The land owners figured there had to be another cavern on the property but they couldn’t ever find a natural opening. They spent years exploring and drilled a couple of holes where they thought there should be a cavern without much luck. They finally decided to drill one more hole. It reached an open area but it was a pretty small hole and they didn’t have anyone to send down there so they decided to send a camera down. The film came back pitch black, which is a good thing. That means that when the flash was set off it didn’t have enough time to bounce off the walls and get back to the lens before the shutter closed. That meant that this was a HUGE cavern. They then decided to try sending a person down the hole but the hole was really small. Luckily there was some tiny, skinny guy willing to go down and check it out. There are still a lot of unexplored places in this cavern. One cool thing about this tour is they turn the lights off and on so the whole place isn’t lit up all the time. It conserves energy and keeps the natural habitat of the cave more consistent and it gives you a better experience. Here is the hole in the ceiling he came through (lit by artificial light). It was up pretty high but it’s still a very small hole! I don’t think I would have fit through it. I definitely wouldn’t have tried!
Another monster mouth.
They had some more touchstones for everyone while we were seated awaiting the blackout. The guide turns all the lights off in the cavern and you can see (or not see) just how pitch black it can get. The kids thought it was hilarious to trail their fingers across my neck and back trying to scare me. Josh would be proud.
This was the view as we were sitting in the little amphitheater. We didn’t go down any farther but they do offer tours for older people that’s more “off-road” and very dirty. We passed some people coming out as we were going in and they were SO muddy! I can see how people would think that’s fun though. Not me - just some people. :)
I made the kids stink around after everyone else left.
I think this might have been the highlight of the trip for the kids. Don’t ask me why! They talked about it forever though. There is a speleothem forming on the handrail on this path. The guide warned us before we reached it and asked us not to touch it. The path is VERY dark so it was hard to see and a couple of the kids totally missed it the first time. We made sure everyone saw it on the way back up though.
What goes down must go back up, again! (This tour was definitely more of a workout and lots steeper!)
I thought this one looked like people gathered around a table for dinner.
After we got back outside we loaded up the car and headed off to find some lunch. We also went to Walmart and got a couple of movies for the kids to watch. I had completely forgotten that the Suburban had a DVD player or I would have packed some movies for them! We ate lunch and got back on the road. Thankfully the traffic wasn’t that bad (it was SUPER awful on the way down there) and we made it home just before Daddy started putting kiddos to bed. I’m so thankful for great kids who make it easy to do something like this and especially grateful for an amazing husband who talks me into things I would never do on my own.
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