...walked into a cave with no name...

We didn't ride there on a horse with no name, but this wonderful cave is actually Without a Name (the legend, we were told, is that a little boy said once that it was too beautiful to have a name, and that stuck!).

It's only about an hour from my house, but I'd never been there. So when a group of college friends got together and wanted to tour it, I couldn't wait.

It's on private property, but they have a well-organized tour and reservation system and our guide was knowledgeable about the geology, formations, and history of the amazing space. Accidentally discovered by some local children close to 100 years ago (one of the kids died recently, in her 90's) there are still goodness knows how many undiscovered chambers. But what has been developed is fabulous enough. The picture on the right shows how the kids first got in, as well as part of the stairway that, fortunately, is how you go into the cave today.

Made by a subsidiary stream of the Guadalupe River that seeps underground through the limestone, we were told that on occasion parts of the cave are flooded, but our current drought means there's no danger of that. Here's a look at the subterranean river...

Some of the rooms we visited, while not Carlsbad Caverns size, are still pretty humongous:

They even have concerts in one of the spaces, and rent it out for weddings, etc. One of our group had a birthday, and when we sang to her, it sounded pretty awesome; I can't imagine what real musicians would sound like in these acoustics!

As you can imagine, I took a lot of pictures with my new phone, which I'm happy to say does okay in low light. Here are some of my favorites, highlighting cave features large and small:

this might be my favorite pic

Here are two especially impressive groups of features:

You can see how porous the limestone is...

...which, of course, is how the water seeps in to make these features, both large and small, and sometimes both in the same space!

Those drapery features are almost everywhere, and so, so very gorgeous!

gorgeous and appetizing...bacon, anyone?

Here are an assortment of lovelies: draperies, tites and mites (stalactites coming down, mites growing up...will I remember the distinction this time? probably not):

You'll notice some of the deposits are white; our guide told us that these are the more recent ones:

The cave has been open to visitors for many years, under different owners. In order to accommodate the largest numbers of paying customers, some former owners brought in gravel to smooth the walkways, sometimes so much that some great features were buried. This is how the gravel was transported into the cave: throught the small hole you see in the "roof" here, where the pole is:

Volunteers in recent years have reversed this process, removing gravel so that more of the cave's marvels are back in view. Some of the most photogenic features so restored are these rim dams, collecting water (artificially, our guide admitted, at least during droughts) to make lovely reflecting pools:

This part of Texas is lousy with limestone caves, and it's somewhat alarming to think about as you walk along what you assumed was solid ground all the way down. (There's even an extensive cave system under part of San Antonio!) But it's also very cool to imagine this other world, just out of sight. I'd be up for seeing more of these underground wonders!