Cave Creek Caverns

Along a trail in the Pecos watershed is a small stream that partially disappears into caves in the cliffs.  It’s a truly unique and beautiful place, and the hike to get there passes through a fantastic canyon with aspen and ponderosa and an abundance of wildflowers and butterflies.

Riki’s thoughts…

I had a bit of nostalgia today. This is surely an indication of our age, as sentiment grows with the passing of decades. Some of my nostalgia is twelve months old. Sometime in this month last year, Kelly and I officially began our new life together. I think it is funny that neither of us know the date, and neither of us really care to know. It is good enough to know that it was about a year ago. About a year ago, Elfie was brand new to exploring. She didn’t know she had a back end, didn’t know what it was like to be off-leash, didn’t know how to follow a trail, didn’t know what a cactus was, didn’t know that it was a bad idea to try to keep up with Rango. She knows all of that and more, now. She mastered creek crossing yesterday, got quite muddy in the process. She looks pretty adorbs with a muddy face, paws, and britches.

I was also nostalgic about our cave exploring adventures in High School. I look back and cannot believe some of the places we wormed our way through, literally. Some of the spelunking we did back in the day was done on bellies, inching forward on elbows in a train of friends in areas so narrow that we couldn’t have turned around if we decided to turn back. The caves today were fortunately much more spacious. My claustrophobia has grown with my nostalgia, and I am not sure I would tolerate such tight spaces with the grace and poise I did thirty five years ago. It is amazing what one will do to try to keep up with her high school sweetheart and his gang of adventurers. The caves yesterday were fairly easy to travel, and well worth the risk posed by the slightly-slippery rocks.

My last category of nostalgia is from the few years that my family owned 80 acres up Rist Canyon in northern Colorado. I was just entering double digits when we moved up there and just edging into my teens when we moved back down to town. This was a hard time for my family. Long hours, strained and broken relationships, hard work and heartache. But, the mountains provided me a place to escape and get lost in my whimsy. There was a creek running into and out of our trout pond, and the banks of the creek hosted hours of imaginative play for me. The creek beside which we walked yesterday reminded me of that creek from my childhood. Many of the wildflowers and butterflies we saw were familiar to me from that property, as well. I took a few minutes to lay back in a sun-dappled field of wildflowers after plunging into the creek with the kids. For just a moment, I was ten again, looking up from underneath the flowers and the aspens and the cloud-decorated blue sky.

The song sung by the brook is ever changing. Sometimes it is like a roar, sometimes like a giggle. The way the water dances and sparkles in the sunlight as it plunges over and around rocks and logs is as mesmerizing as the song that the creek is singing. It is one of my favorite places in the world to be.  The Jews have a tradition of baptizing people in running water, rather than in lakes, because they say the moving water carries away that for which people long to be purged. I love that imagery, and sitting next to (or occasionally in) rivers and streams seems to carry away regret and longing, fear and pain as one is lost in the sparkling waves, the gurgling sound, the spray of vapor, the fresh smell of water-loving vegetation. Even thinking of it now brings a wash of peace over my soul. I hope that those who read this will feel the same thing.

Kelly’s thoughts…

It’s been eight years.  Eight years ago I decided I needed to get out of a very bad situation for my kids and myself.  It was an agonizing decision, one I knew would have long term consequences, but I knew things would definitely be better for myself, I would be better for my kids, and my kids would be able to live in a better situation at least half the time.  I know I made things harder for them in some ways, but I have such a good relationship with each of my kiddos, and I know I made the right decision.  My guys and I are really close.  I moved out June 1, 2016, and the first adventure I had with my guys after that was Father’s Day that year.  We hiked up into the Pecos area to the caves along Cave Creek.  I can still feel the emotions of that day, a day I knew our lives would never be the same, but a day I hoped would be the start of lives that would be much better.  And they have been.

In the headwaters of the Pecos River in New Mexico is a small tributary named Cave Creek.  A pleasant hike of about two miles through ponderosa pine and aspen trees along the stream leads to a cliff face with caves carved deeply into it.  Much of the stream disappears into the caves, more so during the runoff.

Our day included Kelly and Riki, and also Josiah, who has finished his sophomore school year, Annie, who is home for the summer from college in Alabama, and her boyfriend, Jared.  Also along were the intrepid Rango and the beautiful and simple Elfie.

Along the route were wonderful wildflowers including yarrow, blue bells, shooting stars, red columbines, pink roses, various asters, purple things, chokecherry, blue flowers, various white things, and, my favorite for the day, yellow lady slippers.  These last are an amazing yellow orchid that seems like it should be growing in tropical forests instead of montane habitats in New Mexico.

Also there were abundant butterflies, especially swallowtails (Papilio) and many Lycaenidae (hairstreaks and blues), among many others.  Rango doesn’t much care for the flying insects, though.  He has lived in mortal terror his whole life that a fly might land on his butt.

 

The caves are a couple miles hike up the canyon.  The entrances (there are several) lead into a series of passageways that interconnect and branch.  The stream disappears downward and cannot be easily followed.  Side passageways are clearly full of water during runoff, but can be accessed when water is lower.  It’s a fascinating spelunking experience.

The kids and I have explored several caves in New Mexico and Colorado, and Riki and I used to be serious spelunkers in Colorado with our friends when we were dating in high school.  We explored Hubbards, Wednesday Afternoon, Fixin to Die, and Premonition Caves (we were probably only the second team to get into Premonition).

When Josey and Annie and I were here eight years ago, we had a great time hiking and they spent about an hour and a half playing in the stream.  It was great to see them still with that level of experiential whimsey as they got into the stream on this hot day.  Of course, Riki had to join them because her sense of whimsey exceeds that of most children!

It was a great revisiting of this fantastic area with our new family.  Riki connects so closely with my kids, they love her so much, and she loves them.  Riki and I have each expanded our families so wonderfully, including each other’s kids in our spheres.  As destructive as past decisions felt at the time, they resulted in incredible new relationships.  We are truly blessed!