Over 500 miles of US 93 are in Nevada, and the land it
crosses is largely unchanging; usually the route passes along the floor of a wide valley while distant jagged mountain ridges follow the road at either side. So it is with the stretch north of Caliente - a sleepy railway town close to the Utah border, but hidden just one mile to the west is a unique landscape, created by erosion of the soft shale and mudstone by rainwater flowing into the seasonal Meadow Valley Wash, an area known as Cathedral Gorge.
Cathedral Gorge: 'Gorge' is a slightly inappropriate term as nowhere do the branched ravines formed by the creek exceed a depth of much more than 10 meters - the uniqueness of this place is a result of the many narrow water-created passageways and caves at the edges of the valley, which is over 50 m wide at the entrance but tapers sharply at the north end. Besides rainwater, erosion is accelerated by climatic extremes; freeze-thawing cycles occur in winter when temperatures are often below zero, while the baking heat of summer, sometimes over 100°F, dries and cracks the rocks.
Formations: A short scenic drive passes a self-pay fee station, information boards and a 22-site campground, and ends at a parking area near some of the main formations. Brightly-colored cliffs and spires rise quite steeply ahead, with many narrow crevices at the edge; these are often only 1 metre wide but extend inwards for up to 100 meters, usually quite winding and with many side-branches. The walls tower high overhead and the effect is very much like being underground. Most passages end abruptly, a characteristic feature of the rock, in a circular shaft with daylight visible far above; these mini canyons are formed when rainwater runs off the nearby land and is channelled down the shaft, and the 'caves' gradually erode further into the cliffs.
Canyons: Several parts of Cathedral Gorge have particularly fine formations but the north end is even more unusual. This area is reached by an easy half-mile trail which links with an alternative entrance road to the park at Miller Point, an overlook with a fine view southwards over the canyons. Here the streamway branches and several forks flow through deep, narrow ravines, very much like slot canyons except that the softness of the rock often results in the flood waters eroding several passageways on different levels, forming short caves, abrupt elevation changes and unusual formations. There is no trail this far up the canyons and some climbing is necessary to progress. A torch would be useful as some of the caves are sufficiently long and deep as to be completely dark.
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