Once upon a time, back when our KOA Camping Trip was still being held in Kings Canyon National Park, we used to take a trip every couple of years to a cave complex. Drop some bucks, get a hard hat, see the remains of caverny goodness, long since turned tawdry by visitors and cheap lighting effects.
Seems now we ought to have kept on the highway and gone to the neighboring park …
Four amateur cave explorers in Sequoia National Park have discovered a vast cave formed 1 million years ago, a labyrinth that stretches more than 1,000 feet into a mountain and features some of the most beautiful rock formations ever seen.
Millions of crystals along its walls shimmer like diamonds. Translucent mineral “curtains” hang from the ceiling. Flowstones that resemble spilled paint dot the floor. A lake that might be 20 feet deep fills one of the cave’s five known rooms, and passages leading into darkness suggest there is still much more to see.
The discovery has excited geologists and cave explorers nationwide because although caves are discovered with almost mundane regularity — 17 of the 240 caves in Sequoia and Kings Canyon parks have been found since 2003 — it is rare to find one so grand. The cave, named Ursa Minor, has been called one of the most significant finds in a generation.
Cool.
(via Warren Ellis)
UPDATE: National Geographic has more.