Explore limestone caves at Mitchell Caverns, a hidden gem in the Mojave Desert

Let’s say you’re on your way to Needles.

OK, you’re probably not on your way to Needles. But say you’re headed to Las Vegas or Lake Havasu, and you’re looking for a fascinating stop along the way. Or perhaps you’d like to plan a road trip – the kind that whisks you away from the daily grind and takes you whooshing down wide desert roads to a destination that seems to exist out of time, a place where you won’t be bothered because cell service is spotty, and you’re too awed by nature to answer a call anyway.

This is the trip for you.

Mitchell Caverns is a gem of the California State Parks system, home to magnificent limestone caves and unique wildlife. Though the park is remote, it’s an easy, two-hour drive from Barstow to the 5,900-acre Providence Mountains State Recreation Area – a place to be savored.

Here, the rugged mountains, cactus-dotted canyons and gnarled pine trees conspire to evoke awe. This is a sky island, where the habitat shifts dramatically with the elevation gain, so the dry low desert surrounds relatively lush mountain forests of juniper and pinyons, oak and manzanita.

The name Mitchell Caverns pays tribute to Jack and Ida Mitchell, prospectors who bought claims to the land in the early 1930s, intending to mine for silver. Upon hearing about the caves from local ranchers, the couple set out to create a tourist attraction. For context, this was around the same time that another cave destination – New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns – was booming, and Jack dreamed of cultivating something similar in the California desert.

Jack and Ida built stone cabins by hand on the property. They cleared space for campsites. Jack even bulldozed the 22-mile road that led from Route 66 to the caverns, and given the number of potholes, it’s possible the road hasn’t been touched since.

Tours were led by Jack, who seemed like a sunbaked version of P.T. Barnum. He lowered visitors into the canyons by rope, crawled through candlelit tunnels, then made a tremendous show of the “bottomless pit,” where he dropped flares that disappeared into the darkness. (The pit is actually about 40 feet deep.)

The resort chugged along from 1934 to 1954, then the aging Mitchells arranged for the state to take over and preserve the land, making these the only limestone caves within the California State Park system.

Nowadays, tours are less about showmanship but still heavy on natural wonder and adventure. You must have a guide for the caverns, with reservations made in advance through the park. Two main caves are on view: El Pakiva (the Devil’s House) and Tecopa (named for a Shoshone chief). There’s a third cave, but it’s deep and dangerous, and at this point it’s off-limits to the public.

Tours enter through the “eyes of the mountain,” the dual opening of El Pakiva, then move through that cave into the next. The winding path is illuminated by small LEDs, except for a brief moment when the guide cuts the lights, plunging visitors into darkness. It’s such a complete erasure of light, the air instantly feels empty and disorienting, like falling through space.

“This is the same view you’ll see in every cave around the world,” my guide joked.

What makes Mitchell Caverns distinctive are some unusual formations dating back to the Pleistocene epoch. There’s an impressive column, where a stalactite from the ceiling connected with a stalagmite that formed upward from the ground.

You’ll also see cave popcorn, where water seeps through pores in the limestone, resulting in shapes that resemble popcorn; draperies, which look like curtains of icicles along the cave walls; and a rare cave shield, a large disc attached to the cave wall, created over time by a horizontal fissure in the rock.

Most of the area’s wildlife – bighorn sheep, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, rattlesnakes and badgers – live outside the caverns, but two species are endemic to the caves: the golden Niptus beetle and the cave-dwelling pseudoscorpion, a tiny arachnid smaller than a pencil-top eraser that lacks a stinger. You also might see Townsend’s big-eared bats, the most commonly observed bat species.

Of course, the caverns existed long before the Mitchells ever arrived. The Providence Mountains have been home to the Chemehuevi people, a branch of the Southern Paiute, for thousands of years. Tools and evidence of ceremonies have been found within the caves, and the Chemehuevi continue to have a presence at the sacred site.

Unfortunately, the limestone is soft and shifting enough that any petroglyphs have degraded with time. (Notable exceptions are the petroglyphs that were painted in the caves during the production of the 1991 Oliver Stone film, “The Doors.” The supposedly temporary paint was difficult to remove, and filming has since been banned at the site.)

To make the most of your Mitchell Caverns experience, budget time to explore some nearby trails. The Mary Beal Nature Trail is an easy, half-mile trek on a self-guided loop that showcases the remarkable high-desert flora. The Niña Mora Trail is a more moderate half-mile loop, which offers sweeping vistas.

For nearby camping, aim for Hole-in-the-Wall Campground, about 15 miles from the caverns within Mojave National Preserve. Campsites ($12 and first-come, first-served) are surrounded by otherworldly volcanic rock formations in an area close to several trailheads. Don’t miss Hole-in-the-Wall Rings Trail, a brief but fun 1.3-mile loop that involves climbing up mounted rings and rock scrambling along a cliffside that resembles Swiss cheese.

IF YOU GO

Where: Mitchell Caverns is located in the Providence Mountains State Recreation Area in the eastern Mojave Desert.

When: The state park is open Friday-Sunday and on holiday Mondays from September to June. (Closed July and August.) Find park information and reserve your 2-hour cavern tour ($10-$20) at http://parks.ca.gov. State park entry is $10 per vehicle.

Bring: There’s no gas or food located within many miles, so make sure you have everything you need to fuel yourself and your vehicle. For the tour, you can take a water bottle, but no backpacks or snacks.

Good to know: Cavern trails are not ADA accessible, and the cavern formations create some areas as low as 62 inches and as narrow as 14 inches. If that doesn’t appeal — or you’re just curious about what lies in store — take a video tour of the caverns online or at the visitor center.

Also good to know: Bat populations have been decimated by white-nose syndrome. This is a fungal growth that does not affect humans, but humans can carry and spread the spores, and the spores can survive for up to a decade. For that reason, the park requests that whatever you wear to Mitchell Caverns, you never wear into another cave.