The eastern Mojave Desert contains lots of disrupted pieces of ancestral North America, including outcrops of ancient Paleozoic limestone. In the Providence Mountains, late Paleozoic limestone of the Bird Spring Formation (250-300 million years old) hosts impressive caverns formed about 12 million years ago—much younger than the limestone itself, but considerably older than the recent Ice Ages that began 1.6 million years ago.
The caves were known to the local Chemehuevi, a southern Paiute branch. Jack and Ida Mitchell acquired them in the early 1930s after losing everything during the Great Depression. After first trying prospecting, Jack eventually developed the caverns as a tourist destination. He built a road to US 66 about 20 miles south (now Essex Road) and promoted the caverns as a rest stop for California-bound travelers. When the Mitchells retired in 1954, the caverns became part of the state park system, and they are now the centerpiece of the Providence Mountains State Recreation Area within the Mojave National Preserve.
Mitchell Caverns include two publicly accessible caves, El Pakiva and Tecopa, connected by a tunnel with an “airlock” consisting of two doors opened only during tours to preserve their environment. A third cave, Winding Stair Cave, consists largely of a vertical shaft and is closed to the public.
Although relatively small, the caves (especially El Pakiva) contain spectacular speleothems, formations deposited by percolating water containing dissolved calcium carbonate. These include stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, flowstone, and even more unusual forms such as helictites (where capillary forces have defied gravity to yield twisted straw-like features) and “shields” (disk-shaped deposits formed by solutions exiting linear cracks).
The Providence Mountains Recreation Area has more than just the caverns. With summits over 7000 feet, the mountains catch more rainfall than the surrounding lowlands, forming a “sky island” with more diverse and abundant vegetation than is typical in the Mojave. There is even a sparse pinyon pine forest in the higher elevations. Several hiking trails centered on the visitor center give the flavor of the mountain environments. The elevation of the recreation area also provides expansive views over the surrounding desert.