DEC 29, Sunday, 2013: San Antonio Natural Bridge Caverns and McNay Museum:
The Natural Bridge Caverns are the largest commercial caverns in Texas. The caverns are 33 miles from San Antonio.
We had breakfast, checked out of our hotel. We had gone to McNay museum 1st but it
opened only at 12, so we came here. Logistically it would have been
better for us to cover the museum 1st as it's in the city and then
drive here before proceeding on to Houston.
After seeing these caves, we had to
double back into the city covering 20 miles to the museum and then
drive back this way again in the evening...on our way back to
houston.
Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch is a
drive-through wildlife safari park.
When we saw this sign we contemplated
going to the safari and went to that entrance... but there was a
queue and we did not know if it was a horse ride safari. so we
reversed and went per our original plan of visiting the caves.
Later when we did our research, we
found that the wild life ranch is also quite beautiful —we can
drive through in our own car and it has lots of animals—baby twin
giraffes, llamas, zebra, wildebeasts, ostritch, kangaroo etc in 400
acres of land.
The Natural Bridge caverns were
discovered in 1960, by students, exploring just over a mile of
passage. Subsequent explorations revealed 2 more miles
Mrs. Clara Wuest (the landowner)
decided that she would fund development after she could not get govt
funding.
The site is still owned and operated by
the family.
During excavation, arrowheads and
spearheads dating from 5,000 BC were found. Also, just inside the
entrance, a jawbone and femur of a species of black bear that became
extinct over 8,000 years ago were discovered.
Work on lights and trails continued
until opening day, July 3, 1964.
This is the natural stone bridge at the
start of the caverns...forming an arch in the entrance.
The caverns get their name from this
natural limestone slab bridge which continues all above the
caves..for 65 feet.
The bridge was left suspended
when a sinkhole collapsed below it. This is bridge above the cave entrance and our guide...
The caverns look like an amphitheater.
They feature unique geological formations—stalagmites,
stalactites.
The halls inside are named
imaginatively.
This is St Mary's—as the students who
discovered the caves were from St Mary's.
Other halls are named Pluto's anteroom,
Castle of the white giants, Sherwood forest, King's throne etc.
The caverns are still very active and
growing. Due to the porosity of the limestone,
rainwater travels downwards through the rock, dissolves out calcite, a weak mineral. The water with dissolved calcite enters the caverns where it flows flows and drips constantly causing the
formations to retain a waxy luster. The temperature inside the cave
is 21° C [70° F] year-round and humidity is 99%; the deepest part of the public
tour is 211 feet below the surface.
These formations are stalagmites,
stalactites, and flowstones collectively called Speleothems. They are
composed of calcium carbonate in the form of calcite or aragonite, or
calcium sulphate in the form of gypsum.
Rainwater in the soil zone reacts
with soil CO2 to create weakly acidic water via the reaction:
H2O + CO2 → H2CO3
As the lower pH water travels through
the calcium carbonate bedrock from the surface to the cave ceiling,
it dissolves the bedrock via the reaction:
CaCO3 + H2CO3 → Ca2+ + 2HCO3–
When the solution reaches a cave,
degassing due to lower cave pCO2 drives precipitation of CaCO3:
Ca2+ + 2HCO3- → CaCO3 + H2O + CO2
Over time the accumulation of these
precipitates forms these shapes..
The ramps and walkways inside the caves
are done very well.
Some people on the tour were quite
offensive—a .......[ethnicity/nationality deleted ] guy touched the
formations repeatedly and posed with his hand on one... we had been
repeatedly told not to touch as the growth will stop ... it takes 100
years for the calcite to grow one inch.
Also another guy [same
ethnicity/nationality as above] let his child press the water spout
and waste water for fun FOR SEVERAL MINUTES at the drinking water
fountain at the end of the trail.
We have seen poor behavior from the
same ethnicity on several occasions... SAD...
Indians grow up with the strong sense
of Karma or retribution for bad behavior; they have a belief that
wasting water/resources will lead to draining of wealth/health and don't
usually allow such behavior by kids/family. May be this kind of values is not the case with the ethnicity we observed. Wish every one had a sense of basic ethics and don't damage public/private property!
Emerald lake... there was a small green
lake here.
After the initial part, we lingered
behind and enjoyed the sights in solitude.
It was an excellent 3/4 mile guided
tour lasting 45 minutes. we had been charged $20 pp.
This is the canopy with
ziplines; separate tickets for these activities... lots of local
families were having fun.
This is the natural stonebridge—the caverns exist below. There are several trails on the ranch which can be explored.
Here are fossils of an extinct bear—more than 8000 years old and stone fossils dating to 5000 BC.
We had lunch in the picnic area—puris,
tomato relish, rice, yogurt/milk, juice, tortilla chips, grapes,
clementines, chocolates... quite an elaborate list all made and
packed from home. made the rice in the hotel room.
We drove on to McNay art museum, on
Sundays they are open only from 12—5. so we had to go to the caverns first
before looping back here
McNay was an American painter and art
teacher who inherited a substantial oil fortune upon the death of her
father. These grounds and the house were hers— so the museum is
named after her, and has been expanded to include galleries of
medieval and Renaissance artwork and a larger collection of
20th-century European and American modernist work.
Marion the owner of this house was born in Ohio. A year after her birth, the family moved to El Dorado, Kansas, where her parents purchased a large tract of pasture land. This land had substantial oil reserves, and made the family wealthy. Marion attended the University of Kansas and the Art Institute of Chicago. Marion married her first husband, railway manager Don McNay, in 1917. The marriage only lasted 10 months, ending with Don's death from influenza.
Although Marion went on to marry (and divorce) four more times, she eventually reverted to using the name McNay for the remainder of her life.
In 1926, after the death of her father, Marion moved to San Antonio with her mother and married Dr. Donald Atkinson. On his property, she constructed this Spanish Mediterranean style mansion (she designed some of the tilework and ceiling stencils herself)
Placement of this Crucifix seems a little disrespectful, left corner of pic above.
Lovely lion fountain creating a small stream running to the middle pond. In the background is Renoir's famous Washerwoman statue
Renoir started to make sculpture only late in his life. Because his hands were crippled with arthritis, 'The Washerwoman' was modelled under Renoir's direction by the young sculptor Richard Guino. Renoir supplied drawings for Guino to translate into sculpture, and several smaller intermediate studies of 'The Washerwoman' were made. It was originally intended as one half of a pair of large figures with the subjects 'Fire' and 'Water', to be symbolised by a blacksmith and a washerwoman respectively. However, relations between Renoir and Guino became strained, and the project was never completed.Renoir's washerwoman—1917. The figure personifies water.
She also commissioned artwork—like the one on the wall here or the one below this— can't see any artistic merit.
This statue named Victoria was
commissioned by McNay. Philip Grausman’s monumental head,
soaring 14 feet high cast in stainless
steel.parking and exit is just near this sculpture.
Again, definitely not to our tastes!
The house was lovely continuing the Spanish flavor with tiles.
On Marion's death, caused by pneumonia in 1950, she willed her fortune, her art collection, and her home to a trust to convert her home into a modern art museum. It has been expanded to include galleries of medieval and Renaissance artwork and a larger collection of 20th-century European and American modernist work.
The museum focuses primarily on 19th- and 20th-century European and American art by such artists as Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Georgia O'Keeffe, Diego Rivera, Mary Cassatt, and Edward Hopper.
The collection today consists of over 14,000 objects and is one of the finest collections of Contemporary Art and Sculpture in the Southwestern United States.
Abraham Lincoln —Bronze
Don quixote—bronze.
There was a period costume exhibition
There were quite few edgy, quirky? Grotesque?pieces.
Bookcase here—not real but a painting...
Bookcase here—not real but a painting...
Cheeto sculpture...
Medusa lamp.
Now for some religious stuff
St Paul—wood. 1500s.
St George and the dragon—wood. 1500s.
St Martin and the
beggar—wood—1500s. One of the most familiar Christian saints
(316AD). St Martin is best known for using his military sword to cut his cloak in two, to give half to a beggar clad only in rags in the depth of winter.
As he was born in what is now Hungary,
spent his childhood in Italy, and lived his adult life in
France, he is considered a spiritual bridge across Europe.
We found the main street named San Martin
in Argentina in many places we visited—Ushuaia, Calafate, Chalten
and Bariloche.
Stained glass
Stained glass Madonna and child.
Jesus by El Greco, the Spanish painter.
Wood panels—French—1500s...
Claude Monet's water lilies... our favorite painter
Jesus by El Greco, the Spanish painter.
Writing desk and bookcase made of walnut wood.
We wound up our San Antonio visit here
at 4.30 and drove back to Houston ending a short but sweet vacation.
The next post is a report on our Disney World vacation:
The next post is a report on our Disney World vacation:
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