Mammoth Cave Lava Tube

Last weekend there was a campout for Utah grottoes (caving clubs), and it wasn't too far away, so we decided to go. We all managed to catch a cold and didn't think that camping out at 9,500 feet would be that much fun (with nights getting to about 28 F), but fortunately we were able to rent a cabin nearby. We met the other cavers in the morning and decided that we were going to do a couple easy caves with the kids.

Our first stop was Mammoth Cave, which had multiple signs pointing it out.

At the parking area there was even a pit toilet and kiosk with information.

Mammoth Cave lava tube has nearly half-mile of passages that are in four main tunnels.

We descended down the main entrance.

Desert Boy was very excited to go caving. He had been talking about it for a couple of days. We don't let him go too often so that it's a special treat to go.

We decided to go in the mostly walking section of the lava tube, but to get into it, we had to crawl through the gate. That was a little challenging while wearing Emma in a sling, but doable.

The gate is to protect hibernating bats during the winter. During the summer, the gate is open for folks to go exploring.

Before long, Emma went with Daddy. I was busy looking for cave invertebrates to help the Forest Service, and Emma didn't like me bending over so much.

Desert Boy was a great size to go exploring all the little alcoves. I'm always surprised when I go in lava tubes how many irregular nooks and crannies they can have. In my mind I always imagine lava just flowing straight and regular, but the reality is that it can be very curvy and irregular. We really realized that when we found out that the passage had curved and we ended up going nearly under where we parked.

Kent, a caver from Utah, came with us. He has six kids and many grandkids, so he had no problem hanging out with us.

Desert Boy was happy that we kept moving. He loves having little challenges like climbs.

Meanwhile, I kept checking for cave critters, finding some flies and mites. The little white mites were probably the most common biota in that tunnel.

Here's the closeup. Ha, not very close, is it? They were tiny, only about 2-3 mm long.

The ceiling got lower as we went further back in the tunnel. My husband didn't really want to retrace our steps over all the slippery rocks. He looks a bit worried, doesn't he?

Fortunately there was another way out, and although it was small, we all made it (even with Emma attached).

Here's a view from the outside, with caver Peter exiting. He was with another group that had joined with ours at the end of the tunnel.

We took a little break, and then Desert Boy, Kent, and I decided to go into another tunnel.

Kent and I went in first and watched Desert Boy climb into the cave.

Climbing over the big boulders wasn't the easiest for him.

But he's certainly the right height for easy movement in the cave!

This tunnel had some fun creatures, including this orange centipede.

Cave crickets were abundant. We counted 21, and we weren't even looking that hard.

The cave crickets were all over the floor, walls, and even ceiling. There's one in a pocket above Desert Boy's head.

This tunnel was like the others, squeezing down into a smaller and smaller size, but it also had an exit at the end.

It was a really fun lava tube, and we'll be back some day to explore the other tunnels. We also enjoyed watching the array of folks coming to the cave. It's a huge attraction, due to the signs and many ATV trails in the area. We didn't see anyone else besides our caver group have helmets, and most folks only had one or two lights per group. We even saw some people take their little poodle down into the cave entrance. The Forest Service has a real opportunity to do some outreach about caving safely and cave conservation.

Although we had finished at Mammoth Cave lava tube for the day, we still had one more cave to visit. We finished our lunch and headed off for the next adventure...

Into the Cave

While our visitors were here, we decided to take a trip into Lehman Cave. This is always a great destination for kids, with so much to see. I gave Desert Boy a flashlight so he'd have something to hang onto and then his hands wouldn't be free to touch the cave formations. Plus he thinks he's pretty cool having his own light.

The first room in the cave is the Gothic Palace, and my brother got the awesome shot above. The parents had lots of fun taking photos as we went on the leisurely tour.

Some of the passages are narrow. This one in particular has a very interesting ceiling.

There it is! Covered with draperies, the ceiling and narrow passage is really awesome. Thanks again, Pete for the photo!

Desert Boy had fun looking down dark holes and wondering if the passage went anywhere. Desert Girl was awake for most of the cave trip and didn't even make a squeak. I guess that means she liked it!

We had some typical kid moments in the cave, too. I mean, kids have to squirm and pick their noses somewhere, right?

Here's Peter, the photographer. He had to duck a lot.

Lehman Cave is known for its multitude of formations. Although the cave isn't long, only about 1.5 miles, it has a very high concentration of speleothems along the tour route, making one feel very much a part of the cave.

I like how the light silhouettes these three stalagmites.

Peter had more ducking as he went further into the cave.

We found a nice place for the cousins to pose for a photo. Except they don't seem to keen on the idea.

Once we let them do their own thing, they were a lot happier.

In the Grand Palace are some beautiful cave shields, including the parachute shield.

We peaked into the Sunken Garden, where some cave restoration is in progress, with the old trail being removed and hauled out five gallon bucket by five gallon bucket. Over 38 tons of material have been moved out of the cave this way so far.

Back in the Grand Palace, these funny bulbous stalactites hang from the ceiling. It's almost like we're getting an under-the-soil view of turnips growing.

Desert Boy looks like he's ready to be a cave guide. He's even got the hand movements down!

You can see that the two little ones are a perfect height for navigating the cave. A small build is definitely an advantage for cave explorers.

Near the end of the tour, the route crosses some natural cave floor with tiny rimstone dams. The calcite was deposited as water slowly spilled over from one dam to the next.

The exit tunnel was made in the 1970s, and they had to dig down through the cave floor to make a human-sized passageway out. That left some layers of calcite with beautiful banding. Some researchers have been doing work dating cave formations to get a better estimate of cave age and should have their results public within the next year.

The tunnel is a place where the kids can finally run! Desert Boy took off with excitement.

Right by the exit door we saw some cave life: a daddy-long legs spider and a cave cricket. What a great trip!

System's Key Cave

Okay, one more big cave trip before I take a long break! (At least that's the plan.) 

At the bottom of this limestone cliff pictured above is a little hole that leads into System's Key Cave.

Here are Ben and Meg checking the map. Our goal was to go into the passage that goes underneath the nearby creek. Sounds crazy, right? Where is our cave diving gear with tanks and masks and fins and string? Well, the passage was reported to be mostly dry, but we wanted to take a look for ourselves, along with noting cave biota and installing a datalogger.

We entered through a gate. We had gotten a permit so we had a key to get in.

Near the entrance we found several land snail shells. These are terrestrial snails that usually give birth to live young. They prefer limestone habitats and are generally only active in the spring and fall, when temperatures are moderate.

Some of the ceiling in the cave was a little unsettling--a conglomerate of boulders held together by dirt and sand. We went though that part quickly. 

Here's a heliomyzid fly. They seem to like caves and will hang out even far into them.

This neat looking creature is related to Daddy-Longlegs. It's called a harvestman, and it is a top predator in the cave ecosystem, looking for little springtails to eat. We were amazed by how many harvestmen were in the cave--there were places where you could see six at one time within a couple square feet.

My camera does okay with closeups in caves, but distant photos get a bit spotty. This photo is of Meg crawling through a low passage, with her pack attached to her ankle.

Pack rats had used the cave, and here is one of the more recent nests. They bring in lots of material from outside the cave, then cement it together with their urine and excrement. Over time it becomes huge. Climate change scientists can dissect pack rat middens to find out what vegetation the pack rats brought in (the pack rats usually stay within a fairly close radius of their midden). The different vegetation types allow them to reconstruct past histories.

Here's another cool cave creature, one that is totally cave adapted, meaning it isn't found outside caves. This is a millipede, and it is white because it has lost all its pigment. It doesn't have real eyes anymore, and it's appendages are probably slightly longer than some of its cousins up on the surface because it gets around by feeling its way. And it has a slower metabolism than millipedes on the surface, taking longer to get to reproductive age. Can you imagine how many thousands of years it took to evolve to these conditions?

Here's Meg, getting ready to get on rope. After going through the mazy part at the beginning, we reached the 25 foot drop. We put on our rappeling/ascending gear and inched down the passage to the edge.

Here's Meg starting on her way down.

And she's about to go to the part where it's a free hang. 

There were some nice views of cave formations on the way down.

These are some soda straws, stalactites, and draperies.

While I was busy taking pictures, Ben and Meg were checking out the cave register. No one had signed in since 2002.

Next we got to belly crawl through a miserable passage with lots of cobble rocks that kept poking me in uncomfortable places. Finally the passage got a little larger, allowing us to crawl, and then even stoop walk.

And then we got to the part of the cave under the creek, where a small stream of water falls into a seat-like part of the rock. This is called the Waterfall Room.

Ben checked the map again, because he spotted a lead that didn't appear on the map. He disappeared for a few minutes, checking it out.

Meanwhile, I installed a datalogger to collect temperature data every few hours. We'll see if there are seasonal changes in temperature. Most caves have relatively steady temperatures, but if they have more than one opening, or are influenced by surface water, the temperatures can fluctuate more.

We then kept going down the passage and basically climbed up on the other side of the creek. But alas, there was not a human-sized entrance. We found lots of pack rat sign, so there are  probably smaller entrances. We had to retrace our steps and belly wiggles and climb up the rope to get out of the cave.

Meg's smile shows that it was all worth it. Sometime next summer we'll go back to get the datalogger, and see if anything looks different in the cave.