Speleothems and leaving it better than you found it (art, vandalism, and Lehman Caves)

As part of our visit to the Great Basin National Park, we went to the Lehman Caves. You can only go into the caves as part of a guided tour with a ranger. (This makes sense when you hear about incidents such as this vandalism at Racetrack Playa or the eejit munters described in this article.) Both this logistical fact, and a part of the tour itself, got me thinking about what the difference is between graffiti and vandalism.

The caves are a seemingly endless succession of vistas into baroque formations of limestone - fantastical columns, shields, and spikes. These have a collective name: speleothems (an abnormally ugly word). It's an astounding and beautiful place. I allowed myself 50 'wow's and I'm pretty sure I got through them all as we walked through alien gullets and otherworldly landscapes, past and even under massive shields, cave bacon, cave popcorn, shallow pools.