We explored Spider Cave the day after the White Giant, and the afternoon after my ascent of Guadalupe Mountain. This is the only other "dirty cave" tour offered at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, and was a very different experience.
Spider Cave is officially not part of the Carlsbad cave system. While research indicates that it may be connected, a passage connecting the two has yet to be found. Access to this cave was more challenging, as it involved driving and a short hike. Even well within view of the entrance it was still difficult to spot.
This cave tour was less athletic and filled with more amazing cave structures. Still, the entrance involved a very tight squeeze through a narrow hole, and we had many moments of slithering, sliding, and crawling through the cave. At one point the person ahead of me moved out of sight and I couldn't tell where to go. The maze of holes appears impenetrable. Thankfully the tours include a ranger at each end, and while out of sight, the people ahead of me could easily hear me when I requested directions.
I was constantly filled with awe at my surroundings; the brilliant white of calcite, the crazy fuzzy-looking chemolithoautotrophic bacteria excrement. Even while enclosed in the earth I had trouble fully realizing that all of these wonders existed unto their own in the truest dark that exists. The fragility of these wonders also astounded me; simply by our presence we were altering the cave, changing the delicate balance of life that lives on the edge. Even though the park strictly regulates the number of people who enter the cave each year - 520 including rangers - they can still detect changes in this delicate ecosystem that isn't even detectable to the unaided eye!
As with the Hall of the White Giant, our exit mostly retraced our steps out. As we retracing our path everything looked different from our new angle of approach. As with my morning hike, I felt that my exit back into the world of civilization brought me out of a deeper place of reality than what we usually exist in.
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