In 1998, I traveled to Plumas County in Northern California in search of a mass quantity of crystals, quartz crystals. Earlier that year, I had met a decorated Vietnam Vet. He was one of those guys who won medals for being an expert shooter. His name was Ray.
Ray seemed unstable to me but highly intelligent. He used to live in the gold country in the Sierra Nevada. Most people who live there are unique, eccentric and are freedom lovers and many are hiding from the law. He had shown me some of the buried crystals he had dug up on top of a mountain and brought back to the Bay area near San Francisco. I pleaded with him to promise to let me go with to Plumas County with him to see the source of these beautiful chunks of quartz crystals.
High on top of a mountain, overlooking the Feather River stood a majestic oak tree. The foliage in the area had not been through a fire in over 50 years. It was full on summer and hot! Green and lush were the mountainsides. We walked around the steep rocky side of Crystal Mountain and he pointed to a hole under the oak tree. “There it is! This is where we crawl in” he said. Clothed in overalls and digging tools, we crawled into this black hole underneath the tree and while lying on my back, started digging and clawing out these growing crystals right out of the rock. The roof of the hole was only inches from my face. I thought I would blackout because of the claustrophobic feeling and the surrounding darkness. When we brought the crystals out into the sunlight, they were still damp with a dark luminescence that faded within minutes of being out of their environment. As beautiful as they were, I never thought I would be in a black hole again.
April of 2000: Giant crystals are found in caves 1,000 feet below the earth’s surface in Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico.
This announcement in the News was the beginning of how my extraordinary exploration into the giant selenite crystal caves of Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico begins.
The story starts to take shape while I was in Agua Prieta, Mexico on October 20, of 2000. A friend of mine and one of the most widely known canyon explorers shows up in the grand lobby of the Gadsden Hotel at the U.S. border town of Douglas, Arizona. We once again greet each other after 3-1/2 years since our last meeting. He asks me to step outside and come to his van... he has some exciting news and wants to show me. He pulls out six color photos of the largest crystals ever been discovered by man. What I was looking at resembled what Superman ‘s Fortress of Solitude looked like on a distant planet. Massive heavy crystal structures like huge beams growing at every angle and wide enough and large enough to walk on as planks. I was so excited I started shouting! I couldn’t contain myself. I have never seen anything like and I could hardly believe what I was seeing,
Rick Fisher said he had little time to visit. He was on his way to the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, with an invitation from an escorted group of Mexican government officials as he was the first American to photograph these unheard of giant crystals. Knowing the extraordinary character of Rick, I was sure that what he was up to was a spectacular find that no one on earth knew about except for the people at the Penoles Mining Group in Naica and a few people at the Dept. of Tourism in Chihuahua. A world-class canyoneer, he discovered the deepest canyon on earth in Tibet in 1996. As usual, he was in a hurry to get to Mexico and made me promise to return the photos to him as soon as possible.
Sedona
Meanwhile I am settled in Sedona, Arizona, and on January 19, 2001, I called Rick to inform him I was reluctantly returning his earliest photos of the crystal caves. He started laughing and said, “You have just called in the nick of time. I am leaving tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. for Chihuahua City on another government expedition to the mines to explore the two new caves of crystals only discovered in April of 2000. There is a space available for you if you want to come, however, I am photographing the crystals for a clothing magazine somewhat similar to the type as Patagonia. The catalog offers clothing for extreme climate conditions. There are sidebars on several pages of the catalog depicting people's stories doing amazing things while wearing the manufacturer's clothing. The name of the catalog is Rail Riders. Have you heard of it?” he asked. “Oh yes, I have heard of it.” I said. “They make a special kind of clothing that is used in tropical and other extreme temperatures where the humidity and heat are very high. Normal clothing such as cotton deteriorates on the body in a very short time in this type of climate. This fabric dries in a matter of minutes, even in extreme humidity.” I said.
“That’s right, and where we are going is a perfect example of that type of climate”, Rick said in a definitive tone of voice. The palms of my hands were starting to sweat ever so slightly.
"Listen”, he said, “in these extraordinary crystal caves, there are fissures in the bedrock that are heated by the magma flows two to three miles below. (What is known now since the early days of exploration of the crystal caves is this intrusion of magma is located at one mile below the underground aquifer) With no natural entrance, this is a cavity inside the bedrock. This is what has helped to grow the crystals to such gigantic proportions. The caves are at 100% percent humidity. The smaller cave (The Cave of Dreams) at about 120 degrees in temperature and the Cave of the Giants approximately 132 degrees. It is a perfect condition to experience the durability of the clothing. Are you still interested?” Rick asked. I am starting to feel this queasy feeling in my stomach. "Yes" I said, as I swallowed a hard lump in my throat.
Rick started to strategize his intentions with me and said: “What I want to demonstrate and photograph on this expedition is a more feminine quality since mostly I have only miners or engineers in all my photos. There is no natural light of course, just the small light on top of a miner's helmet”. It is a black hole inside those cavities.
I'm thinking, that's just great. I needed some time to think about all of this and I told him I would consider it and call back later. Rick said “Don’t take too long, because I am leaving tomorrow. I can’t wait for your decision.”
It took several hours for all of this to sink in. I couldn’t believe it, but I was actually thinking of not going because of other commitments I had in Sedona. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was probably going to be the first American woman in these newly discovered caves. That is if I had enough courage to overcome my fear of dark scary places beneath the earth. Well that didn't take long to make a decision. The next thing I knew, my bags were packed and I drove off to Tucson to meet Richard that Sunday night. At least I wouldn't be cold in the caves, and besides, it was winter. A nice change, I thought while I drove south.
The Trip to Chihuahua City, Mexico
The next morning we drove from 6:00 a.m. to 9:30 at night to arrive at the Palace of the Sun hotel in downtown Chihuahua City, complements of the state government.
What an interesting road trip that was. Passing the dry Sonoran desert in the winter sun, Richard and I discussed everything possible about many extraordinary journeys he had taken all over the world including working closely with the legendary Tarahumara Indians from Copper Canyon, Mexico and his incredible discovery of the deepest canyon in the world in Tibet.
While we traveled the main highway south deeper into Mexico, I was preparing myself psychologically for what was going to happen the next day. I was scared.
That night I dreamed of a female white owl leading our expedition group to the caves. I woke up feeling it was a very auspicious day and that for some deep reason I that I could not logically explain, our group was to be protected from any harm or injury.
The Town of Naica and the Penoles Mine
It was mid afternoon on Tuesday, January 23rd, before we could gain access to the mine and the two selenite crystal caves through the officials at the Penoles Mine Group.
We met up with Carlos Lascanos, top cave explorer of Mexico, and Sonia Morales from the State Department and were greeted by the manager of the mine and Chief of Security, Enrique Alejandro. We each were equipped with a miner helmet and battery pack belt. Even though it was chilly on the surface, I wore the Rail Riders sleeveless white shirt underneath a marine blue long-sleeved shirt and shorts and a pair of tennis shoes knee protectors into the mine because we were heading down toward the humidity and the heat.
We jumped into the mine’s security heavy-duty pickup truck and slowly made our way down one thousand feet. I have never driven down into the earth before. The heat started to increase and I sensed the darkness surround us. I thought this was similar to dreaming. I closed my eyes and let the darkness envelop me.
What seemed about an hour later, we drove to where we could park the truck. We jumped out of the truck and stood at a place where there was an earthen pile of crystals bulldozed in front of the hole by the miners to cover up the smaller cave. I though it was odd the mining company would do this but I was soon to find out why. Afterwards, when we had resurfaced, the cavity with the smaller crystals was named the Cave of Dreams.
Cave of Dreams
We scrambled over the dirt and broken selenite crystals that lay all over the ground and walked up to a small wooden ladder.
I climbed up and over right onto jagged and pointed growing giant selenite crystals that Carlos Lascanos calls the Voca de Tiburon (shark's mouth) and I was hit by a blast of humid heat. That smell! It filled my nostrils. It was ancient dirt baking in a very hot oven. I crawled slowly up into this dark cave with only a miner's light, holding on to pointed tips of crystals. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It looked like a huge blue waterfall frozen twenty feet high.
Frozen Crystal Waterfall
The intense heat and enormous size of the crystals was overwhelming. How could a frozen waterfall be in this temperature? I couldn’t just jump to the crystal fall, because it was separated by a hole between where we entered and where to climb next. I had to climb down twenty feet to the bottom and then start up the other side to the crystal waterfall. It seems I could just walk up, but my sweating hands made the crystals very slippery and dangerous.
A gigantic crystal fall of selenite stood 20 feet high before me, onto which I climbed up. When I reached the top of the cyrstalfall, the heat was even more intense. My heart was beating so fast I thought I would not make it. The heat and sweat was pouring off my body and made it difficult to hang on the crystals. It took all that I had not to panic. Behind the crystal fall were even bigger jagged selenite crystals that led to what seemed to be the back of the cave. It was pitch black in there. It felt as if we were inside a giant womb of GAIA. It is estimated that the size of this smaller cave was around 2,000 feet. We took as many photos as we could while I explored an area that had not been explored before. It was rough going and painfully slow. I was becoming extremely nervous. Feeling dizzy, I was afraid I would fall down and really injure myself in the process. I thought Rick underestimated the heat. It felt like 130 degrees inside.
Cameras and Photography problems
Attempting to solve the humidity affecting the cameras was extremely difficult but Rick figured it out. A professional photographer with credits from all over the world, he solved the problems affecting the images that produced cloudy and foggy photos. Clear filters over the lenses and allowing the cameras to adjust to the extreme heat held the answer. No computerized digital cameras could do the job, only the manual ones.
Mining Tunnels and Cave Temperatures
We stumbled our way out of there and back into the tunnels of the main mine where the air was slightly cooler. The mine’s tunnels are cooled to a nice temperature of 105 degrees. It felt like air-conditioning. We drank huge amounts of Gatorade and other liquids and were completely drenched in sweat and humidity. I felt like I had been hit by a tsunami of energy. Waves of energy and information seemed to be pulsing through my body.
We went back into the smaller cave, the Cave of Dreams, a couple of more times. I was completely exhausted but we still had to prepare ourselves to enter the Cave of Giants to photograph the forty feet tall selenite crystals. It was then that I started to be concerned that I wouldn't be able to do the job of exploring by climbing all over the crystals or to get a peek at some of the giants. My head was pounding with a headache as I prayed for strength and courage.
I was scared. There wasn’t someone guiding or informing me where to go and how to take care of myself. I had no idea what to expect and didn’t feel prepared physically at all for this kind of exploration.
It was years later when I learned that real physical harm happens to the body because of these extreme heat and humidity factors. Neurological damage was a major threat as the body cannot cool down with exposure to 100% humidity. If the body heats to over 104 degrees, there can be the chance of going unconscious. This fact never made itself clear to me when we first explored the caves.
Enrique, Chief of Security, then drove us towards the mining shaft that brings cool air from the surface down into the Naica mine. We sat down anywhere we could to rest and restore cooler temperatures to the body while Enrique gave me some background history on the mine.
History of the Naica Mine
Mexicans have mined here for over two hundred years. What a history this place has. Naica means Shady Place in the Tarahumara language. The Cave of Swords was discovered inside the mine in 1910. Then, the largest find in the world of selenite crystals. Geologists from all over the world came to Naica to study these crystals. At the time, the longest length was just over 3 feet.
Lead, silver and zinc are the minerals mined for profit but there is a myriad of other minerals as well. Calcite, copper, pyrite, malachite, azurite and some celestite are found here as well..
In April of 2000, two Mexican brothers who are employees at the mine discovered the crystals while searching in the bedrock for a main vein of silver. It was all very interesting to me as I had never been inside a working mine before. I was overwhelmed by my own exhaustion to pay rapt attention to Enrique who seems to enjoy the heat. He wore coveralls and long john underwear beneath so that he could manage both being topside where it was about 40 degrees and the hotter temperatures below.
The Cave of Giant Crystals
Once we recovered and the sweat had mostly dried on our skin, we drove about five more minutes down the tunnel to a completely sealed concrete wall with a rusted iron door and a heavy lock. The Cave of the Giants and the Cave of Dreams is connected through an adjoining wall. Some of the miners are attempting to remove these gigantic crystals and sell them on the black market in Mexico, but the weight and enormity of the crystals makes that impossible and dangerous to attempt. One man had already died in the Cave of Giants by using archaic means to move the crystals out of there. He didn't have enough air and lost consciousness. When they finally found him, he was cooked to death. Management decided to increase security.
When Enrique keyed the lock and opened the sacred door, a blast of humid, hot air hit our faces and we had not even approached what was then named the Eye of the Queen. This is where the miners made the first opening into the bedrock where on the other side is a selenite crystal wall.
Walking another twenty feet and up three concrete steps, we stepped into a hole that resembled a huge eye set in selenite crystals. The heat was completely oppressive. It was by our guess, 132 degrees in there and 100 percent humidity.
What I saw was unbelievable. Stepping inside a giant geode, there were massive structures, 30 to 50 feet tall of solid selenite crystals. They criss-crossed from every direction. I felt as if I had entered another planet.
I kneeled down and laid my hand on the plank. It felt as solid as steel and as alive as living tree trunks. Nothing in my reality had prepared me for such a place. I was astounded. We attempted to cover as much ground as possible but the cave was deeply recessed and dark. We had to hurry. The heat made it impossible to stay in there for very long. I returned three more times into this Cave of Giants because a human could not survive in there for more than five or six minutes at a time. We wanted to explore as much of the crystal room as we could in the little time that we had.
We also shot as many photographs as possible. I stumbled and crawled all over this 4,000-foot room of treasure. One column was six feet wide of pure crystal. That is when I found the dead man's rope and crow bar that he used in his attempt to steal one of the giants.
This was feeling like a sci-fi movie. When we could no longer take the heat, we stumbled out of there blinded by the sweat in our eyes, completely drenched and exhausted. We all had easily lost five pounds by noticing that we had to continually cinch our battery pack belts tighter and tighter. Speechless and with deep gratitude, I realized no one in our group had experienced any injuries.
I sat in silence as we drove the dual wheeled pick-up truck and worked our way slowly out of the tunnels back to the surface. We made it out of there safely and that was the first moment I could relax.
This was indeed one on the most glorious and amazing experiences of my life, and it was one of the most difficult.
The mystery and magic of things discovered by us, the humans of this earth! No other giant crystals have been found on the earth so far.
The Mysterious Giant Selenite Crystals
How I was chosen for this extraordinary assignment, I do not know. I have since learned that the Penoles Mining Group had allowed no women to enter the mining operations (up until January of 2001) because of a superstition. For Sonia Morales and I to be the first women to enter these caves seems incredible. No other selenite giants have been discovered on the earth so far. Now, I will do everything I can to share this amazing discovery with all of those who are interested in the deeper knowing of what these particular crystals have to do with us, humans on this planet. The Creator, for a reason, made these beautiful earth keepers. I don't believe anything just happens without a purpose. Even the growth of crystals has a purpose and/or reason.
Rare Slides and Photos of the earliest days of discovery of the Giant Crystals
We shot some amazing slides/photos and I have within my possession rare photographs of me standing on the crystals in both caves. Here at the website, are some photos for your viewing pleasure.
This was a private government expedition for the purposes of scientific research. The public will not be allowed for some time, if at all. The combination of intense heat with 100% humidity is a deadly combination. As most of you know, the explorers today who enter the caves wear fully encased air-cooled protective suits and masks.
I hope you enjoyed my story and please take a moment to view the photos on the next link.
Blessings to you on your own journeys through life.
