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Click on any photo to see an enlarged version.
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| The Mojave is just like being on the Rez |
Old attempt at a silver mine near Mitchell Caverns |
You're not allowed to go in... |
Another mine on the way to the cave |
That one didn't say we couldn't go in |
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| Those holes are the entrances to Mitchell Caverns |
Can't go in those without a ticket, sadly |
But we went anyway. As show caves go, I thought they did a great job lighting this one |
No colored lights, no overwhelming glare... |
The tour guide had a penchant for nicknames... I became Camera Girl. |
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| It's a better nickname than Rat Boy... |
They call these Cave Mushrooms... I prefer those in Scott Cave but they were neat anyway |
Mitchell Caverns (really two caves connected by a tunnel) was very well decorated for something so small and dry |
The ranger told us that the cave once stretched across a wash. On the way back, we spotted remnants of the rest of the cave on the opposite hillside |
We also found this guy |
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| Exposed pieces of lava tube on the preservation |
This, we think, was another mine but there was no way to reach it. |
More 'caves' possibly made of solidified ash |
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On our second day it rained. When the rain stopped, we hunted up a lava tube that was on the map of the preserve |
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| It didn't look promising and the hole, though big enough, had a pretty big drop below. |
James spotted some metal stairs farther up the tube and we found our way in. Still not too interesting looking |
But it turns out our timing couldn't be better. |
Good thing we didn't try jumping from the top of the hole. |
There were a total of 4 skylights in the very short remnant of tube |
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My favorite |
There was a lot of granite mixed in all that lava, higher up in the mountains |
The wildflowers were pretty nice too. |
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