While Texas doesn’t have the grandeur of West Virginia above ground, we were very pleasantly surprised to find some dramatic scenery underground! The Inner Space Cavern has existed for millions of years, and about 25000 years ago had 5 separate and somewhat large entrances. Over the millennia, the cave was visited by saber-toothed cats, jaguars, ground sloths, bears, dire wolves, and even an occasional mammoth. Remains of a camel have been found! For some reason those entrances were sealed by rockfalls and other natural phenomenon, and the cave would probably have remained unknown if not for foundation work for a bridge on the new I35 interstate in 1963. Engineers were lowered into the cavern via a hole drilled through the roof and the full extent of the cave was discovered. It is said that the rumble of traffic can occasionally be heard, but not through my hearing aids!
What is even more interesting is that although back in history, the cave was home to tens of thousands of Brazilian free-tailed bats, the opening of the cave for human visitation also gave some tricolored bats a new home to hibernate over the winter. These tiny little creatures can be seen hanging from the roof and walls of the cave and even flying around the heads of visitors taking the hour-long tours through the cavern.
These tiny bats are perhaps as big as a golf ball, but very light – weighing less than a US quarter, I understand. If you want to learn more about these bats, check out this article by Merlin Tuttle.
Our grandchildren were fascinated by the tour and particularly by the chance to see these tiny bats up close. They had recently visited the Mammoth Cave system, but decided that this tour around Inner Space Cavern was better! There is a more adventurous tour with flashlights for those over 7 – that is on the agenda soon!
Below you will find a few photos from the tour – hand-held with no flash to avoid disturbing the bats, who seemed pretty indifferent to the many tours passing them by. I’ll put links to where you could buy a print of these images if you thought it would make a nice present for someone!
I thought this next one looked very like a rhino horn! Amazing to think how long it must have taken for this to be created!
