Only way to see the Vasco Caves is via guided tour — Ol’ Tom from Berkeley provides the next best thing.

According to our affable guide, Mike Moran, a naturalist with the East Bay Regional Park District, “a lot comes together right here at Vasco Caves” – convergences of history, geology, geography, botany, zoology, ecology, and prehistoric archaeology.

Another way to say it: real live cave men (and their women and kids) might well have lived there.

Previously: Cool place to check out: Vasco Caves.