What do you do on a rainy day spring break vacation to the Gold Country?

You go underground! 165 feet underground.

The “moaning” of the caverns are named for a sound that was emitted for the cave when the wind was right and the water table was in alignment. But the cavern is mostly silent now.

Moaning Caverns has one of the most interesting descents into a cavern. A spiral staircase spirals 16 stories down to the base of the main chamber. Our guide told us the age of the structure only when we were all at the bottom.

The steel staircase was built in 1922 making it just over one hundred years old! It is easy to lose your sense of depth while descending the spiral staircase; you always think the bottom is just around the next turn only to find yet another turn.

When you reached the bottom of the stairs you are in a vast cavern and our guide pointed out cloud-visions amongst the formations. Jaws there, a dragon up there, and a baddie from one of the Star Wars films. Some I could see while others were a complete stretch.

This seems to be a rule for naming cavern forms; a mixture of cultural references and food much like the differing names for Ursa Major: the Starry Plough, the Great Wagon, the Bear, and the Big Dipper. Different interpretations for the same object.

On my 16 story spiral accent I arrived a bit out of breath to see a former student (currently a 5th grader) who was about to spiral down into the cavern.

Her hand was bandaged to cover the stitches, as a result of her younger brother skiing over her hand at Dodge Ridge. I hoped she could navigate the stairs “one handed”.

I later found out that she did!