Mitchell Caverns

My post is for the #bouldersunday challenge hosted by Hive account@shasta and also for Hive account@mountainmonday hosted by Hive account@bashadow

Mitchell Caverns are in the Providence Mountains, located in the Mojave Desert, in San Bernardino County, California.

The caves look like 2 eyes looking out from the mountain.

There are 3 caves located at 4,300 feet in the Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve. The caverns include two main caves named El Pakiva (The Devil’s House) and Tecopa (after a Shoshonean chieftain). Inside the caves there are thousands of formations deposited over eons by water seeping through the limestone.

The caverns were closed not long after I was there in 2010 until 2017, after the two Rangers retired and were not replaced, due to budget cuts. That is when vandals plundered and damaged the Preserve, ripping out thousands of feet of electrical copper wire, they stole metal signs and diesel-powered generators and ransacked the visitor center.