Shasta Lake Caverns

It began to drizzle as we set off to visit Lake Shasta Caverns.

It was very cloudy and we could not even see the top of Mount Shasta as we turned on to the I5 and headed towards Shasta Lake.  We parked up, bought our tickets and waited for our tour to begin. We became mesmerized with a lovely Koi Pond located at the back of the building and Henry and I had a lovely chat remembering the TV Show "Avatar; The Last Airbender." In the Nickelodeon show there is an episode where two spirits reside in the form of two koi fish in a pond oasis at the spirit center of the Northern Water Tribe's capital city. We could see a huge white koi fish in the pond in front of us and it reminded us of the moon spirit from the show. We then chatted about the feasibility of creating a koi pond in an imaginary back garden at some stage in the future and that quickly segued in to a discussion that we have had a gazillion times about our favorite breeds of dog and which ones we would love to have as pets. It was a fun ten minutes!

Our tour was finally called and we made our way down to a boat to take us across Lake Shasta to the entrance of the caverns. The boat chugged in a neat figure of eight pattern up and down the lake to give us a chance to enjoy the arms of the lake. Finally we docked and disembarked.

From the boat we plodded up a very steep slipway in the rain towards a rickety old bus. We boarded and drove up a very narrow road that was cut into the side of the cliff, maneuvering around tight corners, a hair's breadth from toppling down the cliff and crashing into the lake about 70 feet below. I could not look and held my breath the whole way up! Kim and Henry said the view of Lake Shasta and the surrounding mountains was spectacular.

Thankfully, it was a short journey up the hill to the entrance to the caverns. 

Made of an unusual local limestone in which we could see embedded and preserved fossils of marine flora and fauna, telling the history of the area being underwater 270 million years ago, the entrance to the caverns was through a nondescript doorway that led into an ancient passage way fit for Indiana Jones. The cavernous adventures had begun!

We were immediately struck by the otherworldly beauty of the limestone formations. Huge stalagmites and stalactites, flow stones, snowballs, formations that looked like streaky bacon, sprawling natural sculptures forged over thousands of years, underground lake mirrors created a mystical experience. Considering it felt like an Indiana Jones adventure, we were relieved there were no snakes, however we did see a lot of tiny bats and heard the scraping noises of blind salamanders.

Formed by the movement of tectonic plates pushing the limestone up out of the earth over 200 million years ago, we moved from one  cavernous room to another. The caves were known to the local Winto Native American tribe who used them for sacred rituals and ceremonies, most probably involving music as the acoustics were incredible. The cathedral-like caverns were over 120 feet tall. 

Our oohs and ahhs echoed around the chambers.

It was a breathtaking experience to be in the "Lost Kingdom" of the Lake Shasta Caverns.