Painted Cave
24 September 2008 | Santa Cruz Island
Scott
We visited the largest sea cave in N. America this morning. It was a bit of a trick for us to get to without a dinghy with an outboard (more fodder for Mary's desire to have an inflatable dinghy with an outboard - the debate of engine vs. oars continues). We anchored in the mouth of the cave in 70 feet of water right in front of the cliff and took turns rowing into the cave with the kids, leaving one of us on the boat to make sure it was there when we returned. The cave was a series of chambers starting out the size of houses and coming down to smaller and smaller rooms leading straight into the island. The natural light shrank to a small spot on the wall and it got spookier and spookier until the kids decided that they had definitely had enough. (Thank goodness) We probably only went a third of the way in, but the cave took a very dark and scary turn before it opened up into the next chamber. Now me, I was being too cool to admit it in front of the kids but there must be some primordial thing that we have not evolved out of. Rowing into the dark with the surge of waves sounding like the breathing of some beast far off in the caves and seeing the eyes of a seal(?) reflecting our flashlights back at us, felt, at a core level, like a very dumb idea. It went from Pirates of the Caribbean to Haunted House in a heartbeat. Out we paddled and told Mary, "super cool, ya can't miss this".