Desert Destination: Crystal Ball Cave

Located in the west desert of Utah is Crystal Ball Cave, so named because the interior is filled with calcite crystals called nailhead spar. It's a little-known wonder well worth a visit.

For part of the Millikin University Spring Break 2009 trip, we headed out to Crystal Ball Cave.

The trip starts at the end of the driveway framed by hundred-year old Lombardy poplars. Jerald and Marlene Bates lead tours through Crystal Ball Cave, so if you want to go you need to call in advance (435-693-3145). The cave is on BLM land, but they have the mining rights so manage the cave.

After meeting Jerald, you follow him to the parking area for the cave and immediately realize he has a good sense of humor. He's lived out at Gandy for his entire life, and it was an uncle that found the cave in 1956. The uncle dragged young Jerald with him to help explore it. Jerald wasn't too enthusiastic due to previous unproductive trips, but this hole in the ground turned out to be different from the rest.

To reach the entrance of the cave requires a short hike. Jerald realizes when the group needs a break and points out plants and other things of interest.

At the cave entrance, he gives more background and tells everyone not to touch cave formations. Then it's time to go in. Jerald unlocks the door, and everyone walks into the dark cave.

A bunch of stalactites are near the entrance. There are no lights in the cave, so everyone needs to bring one.

I thought this weathered formation looked very interesting.

Patches of cave popcorn decorate some cave ceilings and walls.

Most of the cave formations are calcite, but some gypsum is also found in the cave.

Jerald was good at explaining the different types of formations in the cave, as well as the history of it.

This tall stalagmite was taller than everyone on the tour.

The trail goes next to this primitive ladder, leading up to an upper chamber. Jerald said he wouldn't go up it today.

The tour route is on the cave floor, next to more formations. Everywhere you look there's something interesting to see.

Although Crystal Ball Cave is only about 45 miles from Lehman Cave, it looks totally different. After the cave was dissolved away by carbonic acid, the cave filled several times with water supersaturated with calcium carbonate. The calcium carbonate precipitated out in a crystalline form, called nailhead spar. These crystals cover most of the surfaces in Crystal Ball Cave (hence the name of the cave). Walking into the cave is sort of like walking into a huge geode.

 
Over time, many of the crystals have been covered with sand and dirt, so they're not shiny, but they are large.

Ceilings, walls, and floors all have the nailhead spar coating. 

Sometimes it's more translucent and glows when you put a flashlight next to it.

Further into the cave are interesting formations called cave cones or raft cones. They are the remains of calcite rafts, thin layers of calcite on top of the water. When water dripped onto the calcite rafts, the rafts broke apart and formed into these mounds.

Besides the amazing cave, another appeal of the cave tour is Jerald's quick wit and funny jokes.

He enjoys showing people the cave.

Further into the cave the ceiling drops and requires some stoop-walking. 

Then the cave opens up again and you see what looks like moonmilk decorating the cave ceiling. Moonmilk looks sort of like white cheese that has oozed out of the carbonate rock. It may form due to chemical or bacterial causes. 

Near the exit is a very large rock that has some beautiful crystals exposed. There are a variety of colors.
A close up of the crystals reveals even more beauty.

Besides the geologic wonders, Crystal Ball Cave is a treasure trove of biologic wonders. A paleontological survey of the cave revealed bones from numerous animals. Some are no longer found at this low an elevation (like bighorn sheep), while others are now extinct. These animals lived in the cave vicinity tens of thousands of years ago, when the climate was much different. Roughly 15,000 years ago, the arm of a huge lake, Lake Bonneville, filled the bottom of the valley, and trees extended down near the lake margins. In this landscape, large-headed llamas, camels, small horses, helmeted muskox, American sabercat, and more roamed. 

Crystal Ball Cave is the first location that a new, extinct species of skunk (Brachyprotoma brevimala) has been described.

The cave tour exits from a different place than the entrance, and then it's time to walk back to the vehicles, looking out at the vastly different valley than was there not all that long ago. It would be interesting to come back in 15,000 years and see what it looks like then.

Desert Boy Makes Animal Sounds

I'm traveling, so I don't have time to do my usual Monday Desert Destination post (but I have some great photos from the Spring Break trip that will be posted soon!).

In the meantime, here's a fun video of Desert Boy hamming it up.

A Sign of Spring-Blossoms

I was stunned to see these flower blossoms yesterday. The thin, delicate petals surrounding the yellow pistils. They are so beautiful. But they are also alarming.

Because they're part of something bigger. Much bigger. And although the flowers are beautiful, they have me worried.

Because they're blossoms on our apricot tree, and it's still a long way until we are sure we won't have a hard freeze! Two years ago we didn't get any apricots, and last year we only got a few. I'm ready for a good apricot year, but it doesn't look like the weather is going to cooperate. There's a big storm in the forecast for the next couple of days. 

A Sign of Spring--Frog Eggs

Yesterday we stopped at a desert spring to look for frog eggs. Every March, Columbia spotted frogs (and northern leopard frogs) lay eggs in waterbodies in our valley. They are very picky about where they lay their eggs--the water has to be the right temperature, depth, and velocity. 

We looked around the edges of this spring. It has just warmed up, the trees are still bare, and we haven't seen many migratory birds, so it seems too early for frogs to be going about mating and laying eggs, but that's what they do.

We looked and we looked. In some places the algae was really thick on top of the water.

Eventually, we found some Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) egg masses. The egg masses can have from 150 to 500 eggs in them. One pair of frogs lays each egg mass, so the egg masses provide a good estimate of how many frogs are in the area--just count the number of egg masses and double it.

The black embryos develop into tadpoles in a few weeks, and then the hundreds of tadpoles swim out into the spring. Mortality is really high for the little tadpoles. They are a tasty snack for fish, birds, and garter snakes. Yet enough survive to keep the frogs thriving at this spring.

Columbia spotted frogs are known for their affinity to water. When they get spooked, they disappear under water. What is amazing about this spring is that it is a long way off from any other spotted frog locations, at least ten miles. So have the frogs here survived since much wetter times (like 15,000 years ago, when there was a huge lake that covered the valley bottom)? Or do the frogs get frisky and hop across the desert from time to time?

Spring Break

For their spring break, the Society of Physics Students from Millikin University came out to our valley to enjoy the dark skies and different scenery from Illinois. One of the first things they did upon arriving was take out their many telescopes and set them up. They have a lot of neat equipment.

This is definitely not your usual spring break location (notice lack of leaves on the trees), but at least the weather for the week is predicted to be fairly warm and there's no snow on the ground. That's especially good because some of them are camping.

Here's Bobby, checking one of the telescopes that he's outfitted with a solar filter so he can look at the sun. I took a quick peek and saw the giant glowing red orb. Apparently we have just passed a solar minimum in the 11-year sunspot cycle, meaning there are very few sunspots right now. Over the next few years there should be more sunspots appearing. 

This large telescope was really heavy and required quite a bit of counterbalance weight to keep it on the tripod. The students and professors were very excited about the really dark skies out here. Being at a higher elevation means less atmosphere, so the skies are crisper and it's possible to see more stars.

Uncle Andrew is one of the participants. He's managed to have quite a few adventures this week, not too different from previous ones, where participants felt lucky to get out alive! More coming soon...