The Mud Caves are a popular feature in Anza Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, California. The caves, located in Arroyo Tapiado, were created by water flowing through a thick deposit of silt and are an example of Pseudokarst topography. There are at least 22 caves, some up to 1,000 feet (300 m) in length and 80 feet (24 m) in height. Many of the caves are easily accessed.
Some of the caves found here include:
- Big Mud Cave - The only cave marked on most maps.
- Hidden Cave - Impossible to find without precise directions.
- Chasm Cave - A popular cave with a beautiful skylight.
- Carey's Big Mud Cave - The largest cave in the arroyo.
- Plunge Pool Cave - A short cave that ends in a spectacular round room that towers above you.
- Dip Slope Cave - The small entrance is easy to miss.
Famous quotes containing the words mud and/or caves:
“To-night, His frost will fasten on this mud and us,
Shriveling many hands, puckering foreheads crisp.
The burying-party, picks and shovels in their shaking grasp,
Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,
But nothing happens.”
—Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)
“Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”
—Thomas Gray (1716–1771)