Sonora Caverns

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Our next campground reservation was in Fort Davis State Park. From San Antonio it is 425 miles plus we had 2 nights to kill before our check in. Instead of just doing a rest stop or Walmart along the way, we decided to check out Sonora Texas. It's a small town that we likely wouldn't have bothered with except for the fact the Caverns of Sonora are located there which also happens to have a campground on site.

Half the drive on Sunday to Sonora was in the rain. Fortunately none of our route was closed due to flooding, but there were plenty of large puddles covering the access route adjacent to the expressway. We took advantage of the rest stops every 40 miles or so to take a break and get a geocache. By the time we pulled into the campground, it wasn't necessarily nice but it had stopped raining to set up. The caverns aren't far from the town but the route there is probably 15 minutes or so out of town.

Elevated View from Rest Stop Along I-10

The campgrounds were empty when we pulled in and a small travel trailer pulled in shortly after us. The place is fine for a night or two. They have water and electric sites, but no sewer. In fact, they don't even have a dump station due to the cavern. There isn't much to do in the immediate area other than watch all the deer wander through the area. It started raining that evening and continued the next morning. Fortunately the caverns are only a few hundred feet from our rig and rain would not impact the cavern tour itself.

All By Our Lonesome Camped at Caverns

The tour schedule is not fixed. When we came in to pay, she called the group that had just left and told them they had 2 more coming. Our initial impression of the cavern was not very good. For the first 10 minutes, there were really no impressive formations to be seen. We thought the only entertainment might be our red-neck tour guide Rita. Fortunately the rest of the nearly 2 hour tour took us to some very impressive sights. 

This is a warm cave, meaning it was in the low seventies and very humid. It took quite a long time before my camera lens equilibrated and stopped fogging over. The group was just the 6 of us and Rita, so it was a fairly personal tour. We even got to go into some "rooms" that larger groups or ones with children would not be allowed in. Rita even told us about the people that broke some of the formations and how they are now having their wages garnished. Not sure how true it was, but it got us to not touch anything.

After the tour, we checked out the rest of the grounds, but not too thoroughly since it was still cold and damp outside. They do have a few peacocks wandering the grounds and have a few pheasants in cages.

Peacock Roaming the Grounds

After lunch we headed into Sonora proper and checked out Eaton Hill Park. It is on a hill overlooking the town. It was still dreary out but the rain had stopped so it was okay. I suspect it would be much better on a warm sunny day. We walked around the campground area at sunset and had some pretty good views.

Need to Study My Plant Identification

Maybe an Aloe Plant?

Rugged Terrain at Sunset

Sunset Near Campground

The Sun Sets Over Sonora

A couple more people showed up on Monday night to keep us company as it were. We pulled up stakes and headed out for the mountains of Fort Davis and the McDonald Observatory.