Kartchner Caverns State Park is located at the base of the Whetstone Mountains in southeastern Arizona. If so, start planning a trip to southeastern Arizona for later this year. Kartchner Caverns State Park, kept a secret for 14 years, will test your spelunking skills and expose the secrets of underground caves.
Giant columns form when the two features meet.
Dainty white helectites, translucent orange bacon, and shields of white calcite adorn this nature wonder. From May to mid-September the cave serves as a maternity ward for about one thousand female Myotis velifer bats who roost there. The cave was first discovered by Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen in 1974, but the duo waited 14 years, until the cave was assured of protection, to tell the world of their discovery. Basic chemical reactions and not photosynthesis have been the architect of this underground landscape. Those reactions first hollowed the limestone base and are now filling it with stalactites.