Into Ice Cave

A couple weeks ago I took some work colleagues into a nearby cave. It's not real large, but it has some interesting features in it. To go in, first we had to unlock the gate.

Desert Boy doesn't look too sure about this outing. He wasn't supposed to go, but my husband had a water meeting that ran long, and since I knew Desert Boy could handle the cave, he got to go.

He was happy when he was doing something physical, otherwise he was ready to leave. He made the cave seem quite a bit bigger and was able to squeeze along some of the rather small passageways.

Do you see the scallops on the cave walls? They are an indication that there was once flowing water in the cave. I've been in this cave when water flowed into it--brrrr! It required crawling through some cold creek water. The scallops are found at all levels of the cave and you'll see them in the following pictures, too. Obviously there used to be a lot more water flowing in the cave.

Here's Bryan, who was eager to explore every little nook and cranny, hoping to find some new passageway.

Bryan, Travis, and Nicole reached a deadend and had to turn around. But before they could get out of the passage, I made them stop and pose for a picture. I'm mean that way. 

I didn't have any kneepads that fit Desert Boy, but it turned out he hardly had to crawl, even though the rest of us did.

Here's Nicole in an upper passage. There is just a little bit of maziness to the cave that makes it fun to explore.

I love looking down the deep, dark passageways and wondering where they go.

Travis was willing to not just wonder, but crawl around and find out.

Of course I'm always on the lookout for cave insects, but I didn't find a lot on this trip. This beetle was one of the more interesting finds. There was also a lot of rodent scat in the cave, some of it fairly fresh. But we didn't run into any live rodents. 

Another crawling passage, this one with plenty of dirt on the floor. And you know what you get when you put Desert Boy and dirt together...

...yum. Or not. I just hope he is getting his immune system strong.

After an hour and a half of checking out the entire cave, it was time to leave. But we'll be back!