Grand Canyon Caverns, Arizona Cave Tours

The Grand Canyon Caverns in Arizona, sit over two hundred feet below the surrounding ground. They are in fact the largest dry type caverns of their kind in the country, a real rarity. Not only do scientists continuously probe their secrets, but many tours now encourage tourists to have a look at what is happening below our feet.

Below the ground, in Arizona, the Grand Canyon Caverns lie in wait, never really fully explored by the many tour groups that wander through them. In fact, these sit just underground, and extend well beyond most known caverns in the US.

Many visitors to the caverns are amazed at their depth (-230ft) and most especially that they are so rare. In fact, what grasps most people's attention is that they travel some three football field lengths deep into the sandstone rock. In fact, they do not end there officially. Air comes in through varied other caves, traveling over sixty miles to reach the caverns.

The caverns themselves have not yet been fully explored, something that scientists estimate could involve years of research. So, they quickly admit, even at the visitor center that no one really knows how much further they may go or how safe they really are. However, they do know that unlike other caves around the world and across the United States, there are very few stalactites or stalagmites.

It is known, however, that some three hundred million years in the past, this part of the country was under a vast ocean. As the ocean shallowed and the waters disappeared, many skeletons of sea animals and other creatures mixed with the ocean mud to form limestone. Then with volcanic and seismic activity, the bedrock beneath this shelf rose up, pushing it well above sea level.

Over the next three hundred millennium, the weather became more temperate and acidic rains eroded the rocks, creeping slowly inside the limestone, creating caves, cracks, rivers and eventually the caverns. In fact, the varied formations that developed are one reason that visitors come to see them.