Description
The story of Cody Caves began 600 million years ago when the limestone in which the caves later formed was laid down at the bottom of an ancient sea. Then, around 170 million years ago, the limestone beds were thrust upwards. This exposed the rock to the elements, water and carbonic acid, which eventually formed Cody Caves. Approximately 875 yards (800 m) of the Cody Caves passageways are explorable. The caves have several types of calcite formations, such as stalagmites, stalactites, soda straws and flowstone. The boxwork is considered to be among the best in the world, protruding up to 20.3 cm, whereas 2.5 to 5 cm is average. These ancient formations have been growing at an average rate of one cubic centimetre per hundred years.
The Ainsworth Hot Springs originate in the Cody Caves area and are considered to be the best commercial hot springs in British Columbia. The temperatures vary from 40–42 °C (104–108 °F) in the cave to 35–38 °C (95–100 °F) in the pool.
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“As they are not seen on their way down the streams, it is thought by fishermen that they never return, but waste away and die, clinging to rocks and stumps of trees for an indefinite period; a tragic feature in the scenery of the river bottoms worthy to be remembered with Shakespeare’s description of the sea-floor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Everything to which we concede existence is a posit from the standpoint of a description of the theory-building process, and simultaneously real from the standpoint of the theory that is being built. Nor let us look down on the standpoint of the theory as make-believe; for we can never do better than occupy the standpoint of some theory or other, the best we can muster at the time.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“He hath achieved a maid
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One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)