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On our way down to Sonora, we stopped off in San Angelo, and visited the scenic downtown offices of the Santa Fe Railroad where Judy's Aunt Julia worked for many years. |
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Judy posing on the station platform of the Railroad Station... happily remembering her summers spent with her Aunts here in San Angelo. |
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Judy is standing at the gate for one of the entrances to the Caverns of Sonora.
The Caverns are a National Landmark, located on Interstate 10 between San
Angelo and Del Rio, Texas. It is considered one of the most beautiful
and unusual caves in the United States, with something like 85% current
activity rate (i.e., water is still flowing and building formations).
Caverns of Sonora are best known for their butterfly formation, which is a pretty amazing and beautiful thing. The Caverns were opened for tours in 1960, which means that Judy's childhood visit was one of the first tours. |
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This is an additional view of the entrance including the warning sign about
not touching anything and respecting the caverns... which of
course didn't stop the teenage cretins in our small tour group from touching
two walls, and his sister from dragging a limp wet kleenex throughout the
cave tour and depositing bits on the handrails.
The caverns are about 70 degrees, but VERY humid. The management will only take 12 people at a time, to try to prevent idiots from damaging the formations, and they've done a really good job of preserving things. |
Soda straws, slender columns running from the cave ceiling, are still forming in Sonora. |
More gentle flows show another face of the Sonora caves. |
Another view of some flows and formations. |
Photos don't do it justice, but here are more formations in the cave. |
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After our tour, we visited with some of the workers in the gift shop area
and had some interesting talks. They have about four peacocks wandering
the grounds at this time. They used to have about 40, but they sort of
went crazy on them and attacked some cars, stripping paint off them with
their spurs. They were advised that it was probably due to some inbreeding
(their entire flock or whatever you call a bunch of peacocks had originated
from one pair), and the fact that they had 30 males and ten females when you
really want about a one male to 10 female ratio (like you do with chickens
and roosters).
Also heard tales of caving conventions and increased popularity of bats in caves. |
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On the way back from Sonora, we looked out to the east of the road and
saw the most bizarre structure, and decided we had to go investigate.
It was unmarked except for a small sign that said Eldorado AFS.
For some reason (cue x-files music), my digital camera image was all shaky on these shots. But the facility was heavily barricaded, at least two dozen cameras and massive lights and barbed wire, guard station... and only two cars parked there, no apparent life inside. The large facility with the sloping sides actually has this massive round face on the west side (to your right in this photo) pointing out from the hilltop (which is what caught our attention initially). Could be a cooling tower of some type, not sure. There was also a huge radar dish. |
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Here's Agent X scuttling back from a close inspection of the warning sign
which says that no one is allowed to trespass without permission of the
facility commander, and that all persons are subject to search, etc. etc.
Nevertheless, no one seemed to notice that we were lurking about looking the place over. |
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Here we are scuttling away from the facility... I paused and took a quick
shot of the large structure that had initially caught our attention, with its
huge (maybe 80 feet high?) round face on that sloped-sided structure.
So... how about it? anyone have any information on Eldorado AFS, what it is, what was that structure? Let me know! |