*music*
>> ALEX: “Be careful and put your hand here,” I hear the person in front of me say.
I look back and repeat the instruction.
It is now only through a small crack I see daylight.
“You can proceed,” I hear a person say.
I drop down into the cave, and the world around me becomes pitch black.
Hey guys, I’m here in Yosemite National Park in California, let’s get technical.
Actually, people are giving me weird looks.
Let’s go back to the studio.
Now, when I was in 6th grade, when I looked like this, and yes, that is me, I went on
a class trip to Yosemite.
That little paragraph you heard at the beginning?
That was an excerpt from an essay, er, actually it was a vignette, I wrote on 6th Grade right
after Yosemite.
The assignment was to write reflection on Yosemite; you would write a story of fear
and a story of joy.
Complete in character, I wrote my fear essay about my camera running out of battery, and
I wrote my joy essay about these things called Spider Caves.
It’s cliche, and not really well written, I mean I was in 6th grade, so, but I think
it tells the story well, so it will be used intermittently.
During the trip, all of the adults, you know, the teachers and the tour guides, kept hyping
up these Spider Caves.
They didn’t give us too much background on what the appeal of the caves are, but they
did tell us 2 things: that basically no visitors know of the Spider Caves, and that they are
pitch black.
We did end up going to the Spider Caves, and it was actually really fun.
I’m always skeptical when people say “pitch black.”
I always think “ehh, I bet you I can see light.”
But not, these were PITCH.
BLACK.
This time, I was determined to go back and capture the experience of finding Yosemite’s
Mysterious Spider Caves.
I first had to find where the Spider Caves were, a pretty crucial part of, well, going
to the Spider Caves.
Unfortunately, it had been over 3 years since I was there, and I barely remember what I
ate for lunch yesterday.
Sooooo.
I first started with the concierge at our hotel, and she knew nothing about it.
She did, however, point me to something called the Indian Caves on the complete other side
of the park.
So, I had to scour the internet for any trace of the Spider Caves.
Of course, the caves aren’t well known, and there isn’t much out there, so I really
had to search.
I spent every possible second research, combing through websites, pictures, anything I could
find.
Why am I even here?
There’s no wifi.
You know, I even looked through my middle school’s photos archive to see if there
are any clues there.
Ohh, oh yea oh wow. Ok! I'm starting to remember. Uh
this is the entrance to the caves right there, this is a picture of me and my friends at the entrance to the caves, and this must be a photo of me exiting the caves.
Ooh, that's so cool!
After hours, days, of researching, my dad found a Yahoo answers page in 5 seconds.
Responding to Cullen, Dot replied with a very detailed 3 paragraphs.
Now, even though Yahoo answers isn’t always the most reliable source,
How do I get YouTube to come film me?
Everyone knows you have to get a waiver for that.
It was worth a shot.
“I know where spider caves are!...
You get off at stop 6 off the Yosemite free shuttle (Lower Yosemite Falls) and walk towards
the waterfall on the paved road.”
So we set out...
These are the tent like things I stayed in when I was in here in 6th grade, this was
the dining room we ate at every day, and this was the store we shopped at.
Ahh, it’s weird coming back.
I don’t remember much, but I do remember, uh, I think it was Millie, bought, like, a
plastic snake at the store and then she put it in someone else’s cabin and they freaked
out.
I don’t really know why I remember that, uh, it also might not be Millie, but it seems
like a really Millie thing to do.
Some white puffy clouds, a great hot sun, and perfect blue sky.
I stop looking up and start looking around.
The pine trees around me are a dark green, and there’s not sharp edge on any of the
boulders.
I am walking on ground made of dirt and pine needles.
“Let’s go!” Andrew David, our group teacher, exclaims.
We are going to the caves.
The Spider Caves.
The name makes you shudder.
The more we walk, the more tired I get.
Lotsa snow lotsa snow.
We kept walking, but nothing we saw lined up with the description of what Dot the Yahoo
person said.
Ok, so we think that this might be grandmother rock, but there are 2 problems: one, the Yahoo
person said it would be on our left.
This is on our right.
And two, the Yahoo person also said she likes to climb up there for lunch.
You can’t really climb up there, so.
The Spider Caves are not well known.
Only 1% of visitors who come to Yosemite each year know about these caves.
The caves are not on any maps, and if you ask a Park Ranger about nearby caves, they
will not tell you about the Spider Caves.
Yea, I'm pretty sure we're lost
We were seriously about to give up out of confusion and frustration until my Dad made
a discovery.
>> DAD: This looks like the only area that could be caves.
The other side didn’t look like they had it.
I think it would be, like, over there, oh wait, I think that looks like them.
>> ALEX: Oh, wait.
>> DAD: Yea, that’s it!
>> ALEX: Hold up!
Oh my god, I think this is it.
So cool.
Yea!
There we go!
So you can see in this photo that there is the big line-y rock thing, and you can see
in this photo that there’s a big line-y rock and 2 boulders, and here there’s, like,
the tiny rock thing and the two boulders there too.
It’s a POV right here.
Or as I like to call them...
Pretty
Overt
Vernacular
So it’s this really, really tiny hole.
If you go down here, there’s, like, a little sitting area.
You’re gonna want to keep the flashlight on because it is incredibly dark.
Oh yea.
Ok, it’s very wet.
Oh my god!
Oh, wow.
*music*
It is pitch black without this flashlight.
The only thing you can hear is dripping water.
It is crazy quiet.
Ooooooooh.
It’s very peaceful.
If you don’t believe me on how wet they are, just look at that rock, that rock is
extremely wet.
We are literally right next to Lower Yosemite falls, so, I mean, that makes sense, but...
There are so many nooks and crannies in this cave.
Like, you can go over there or over there.
Wait, there’s a spider wave, not gonna go there.
>> DAD: Hey, are they called Spider Caves because there are giant Hobbit Spiders down
there?
>> ALEX: Yea that sounds about right.
>> DAD: Are there any, like, like, fine wines stored down there.
Or the Cask of Amontillado?
>> ALEX: Uhh, I can look around.
So far, I’m onlying seeing bottles of cheap Pinot Noir.
>> DAD: Are there any nice cave paintings?
>> ALEX: No, just a lot of water.
>> DAD: You see Plato down there?
>> ALEX: Yosemite’s Spider Cave is a special kind of cave called a Talus cave.
What is that?
Well, to answer that question, we first have to look at how regular caves form.
I mean, I guess we don’t have to but...
*The more you know sound effect*
Regular caves form because of water.
More specifically, dissolving in rainwater.
So, what happens is, as rain comes down from the sky, it’ll pick up some of the Carbon
Dioxide molecules in the air.
When this rain water hits the ground and the ground starts soaking it up, the rainwater
will pick up more Carbon in some of the decaying plants on ground.
This makes rainwater a tiny bit acidic; it turns into somewhere between a 5 and a 5.5
on the pH scale.
That’s about as acidic as a cup of coffee or tea.
There’s nothing in these cups.
>> BO BURNHAM: Art is a lie, nothing is real.
>> ALEX: By the way, if you don’t know what the pH scale is, Crash Course.
Anywho, now that the acidic rainwater seeped in the ground, we got half of our puzzle.
What’s the other half?
Rock, of course.
I mean, you gotta have rock to have a cave.
More specifically, rock that will dissolve in rainwater.
A couple different rocks can do this, but the best and most common is limestone.
So now we’ve got our full picture! Rainwater comes from the sky, turns acidic, dissolves
surrounding limestone, and, after many years, a cave forms.
Great!
So, now what Talus caves?
How are they different?
Well, talus caves are caves made up only of boulders coming together and making a cave.
Think of it as nature’s pillow fort.
Like this, but with rocks.
Talus caves can be very tiny, so much so, humans can’t go though, so huge and extensive,
like the Spider Caves.
Ok, it’s time to come out.
>> DAD: Well, when I said, “Do you need any help,” I didn’t know you were talking
about filming.
>> ALEX: Ok Dad, overall, did you think the Spider Caves were cool?
>> DAD: I thought it was very cool!
Off the beaten track at Yosemite.
>> ALEX: Nice! Cool. haha
>> ALEX: So, what did I learn?
Well, besides all that cave stuff, I learned that sometime you have to go off the beaten
path to find the coolest treasures.
There are hidden beauties everywhere; you just gotta spend a little bit of time and
spend a little bit of energy.
It takes some effort to adventure the rarely adventures, but, in the end, it’s totally
worth it.
After a short talk, we exit the Spider Caves.
“That’s it?”
I question.
“Yep,” Andrew replies.
I wish I could go again.
Joy is an emotional barometer.
It tells us if you should do something or not.
Feeling joy means you are on the right track.
Joy is a good thing.
*music*
>> QUINN: You shall not pass!
>> ALEX: Hahaha that's great.
Hey guys.
It’s been crazy couple of weeks, uh, since Tom Scott video came out, I’ve had both
Huffington Post and Mashable articles written on me, which is incredible and really crazy.
I’ve also gotten more fanart, which is extremely really kind that y’all will send me that.
I’m touched thank you.
I’ll feature the fan art sent to me during these end screens.
Here’s the first one, it’s phenomenal, make sure to follow her on instagram.
See ya next time.