Faerie Caves

An enormous column in the Cabrespine cave.

The other day we went to visit the caves at Cabrespine and Limousis – gorgeous, natural cave formations up in the mountains, tucked into these little valleys accessible only by steep and winding roads. It was incredible. The view is amazing, for one thing. Then you step into these caves and it’s like entering another world – a world of rock and water and crystal, stone that looks like it was poured into place, where the temperature is 14 degrees, year-round, no matter what the weather outside is like, and with endless strange, impossible shapes all around you.

The Cabrespine entrance is artificially constructed, and opens onto an enormous chamber, about 250 feet deep and god only knows how high. It was discovered by some young cave explorers, who followed some chambers they discovered behind a wall in another cave and eventually came out at the very bottom of Cabrespine. It’s huge, echoing and vast, with lots of little nooks and crannies and some amazing columns and stalagmites. In addition to the short tour we took, they also do spelunking trips, which are several hours long, into the depths of the cave.

A chamber that used to be full of water at Limousis.

As incredible as Cabrespine was, though, I preferred the caves at Limousis. Instead of one giant open cavern, you walk through a natural entrance into a series of connected chambers – one of the longest chains in Europe. The Limousis caves are also famous for the high concentration of aragonite crystals, which is apparently quite rare in the natural world. And I can tell you, it’s beautiful. Walking through those chambers was like walking through an old palace, one built by nature for some fantastical, magical race.

Check the gallery for some more amazing pictures from Cabrespine and Limousis, including some shots of the gorgeous aragonite crystals!