Greater Vegas — Lehman Caves Part 1

In a previous blog, I described the ancient bristlecone pines that inhabit the upper reaches of Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada. But neither these beautiful trees, nor Wheeler Peak (pictured below), second highest in Nevada at 13,065 feet, are the main attraction at Great Basin. That accolade belongs to Lehman Caves.

the Snake Range as seen from US 6/50

For those of you with an interest in geology, here’s a quick description.

Five hundred million years ago (give or take), what’s Nevada today was under water. The shallow sea was teeming with creatures and the sea bottom collected their bones for 350 million years (more or less). All them bones pressurized into limestone. When the sea receded, the desert moved in and over the next 100 million years (roughly) the sands petrified into sandstone, which was metamorphosed into quartzite.

Uplift and tilting 70 million years ago (upwards of) created the Snake Range, mostly from quartzite, with a little limestone settling in at its eastern base. Some molten granite was burped up near the quartzite-limestone junction; that superheated the limestone into marble.

Seepage dissolved the marble, opening up large caverns and long channels for underground streams and lakes and springs. Then the water table dropped, leaving the caverns high and dry.

Got that?

Here’s where it gets … spelunkuler (to coin a term).

As the seepage dissolved the surrounding limestone, the dripping water deposited calcite, drop by drop, dribble by dribble, mizzle by mizzle. Today, megazillions of calcite drips later, this is the classic Old Man’s Cave, with the ornate and spectacular stalagmites, stalactites, helictites, aragonites, columns, shields, draperies, popcorn, and soda straws as evidence.

Absalom Lehman discovered the cave in 1885 and began taking people through. The surrounding area became a national forest in 1909, a national monument in 1922, and a national park in 1986 — it’s 300 miles and four and a half hours (ballpark) from Las Vegas.

In the next episode, I’ll give you the cave tour.