California Cavern was discovered in 1850 when local Captain Joseph Taylor was practice shooting and noticed a strange breeze moving his targets. That breeze was emanating from underground passageways, and it was soon afterwards opened up for the public. Over the years the easily accessed initial chambers were even used as a community hall, a church, and a popular place for miners to wed.
In the 1960s and 1980s new and more difficult access sections of the cave system were discovered, and there may be more yet to be revealed in the future. For these lower twisting depths, professional guides are available for folks who want more than the casual well lit walking tour part. To get through the maze, we belly crawled through puddles, walked haltingly through deep boot sucking clay mud, clambered along rickety wood planks above steep drops and up a 70+ foot slimy mud covered ladder, rafted across an underground lake, and even swam 50 feet through cave-cold muddy water. As was forewarned, our coveralls were soaked in mud and anything we had on below that was expendable.
The infamous “Womb Room”: this tunnel-hole is about 5 feet long and connected us into a small chamber on the other side; it is so narrow that a basketball can not fit through it!
Be prepared to see a lot of this view while contorting through tight rock passageways…
Squinting in the bright hot sunlit day after exiting from the goo tunnels of California Cavern