Antelope Springs Cave and More

 It's been a number of years since I've been to Antelope Springs Cave, and I hadn't seen the whole cave the first time. The circumstances turned out right to go again, largely to a caver friend coming for a visit. We gathered three adults and two kids and got the permit and key to the gated cave and headed out on a sunny day (back in October--I'm a little behind on posting!).

 There's a small shelter cave just below the real cave entrance that provides very nice views.

Then we reached the main entrance, with a bat-friendly gate. The entrance drop is about twenty feet. The boys decided they wanted to be lowered into the cave rather than rappelling in.

The adults all rappelled into the chamber, which opened up.

We soon faced choices. Down a little hole in the floor, or down a slope that turned into a climb? We had a map from the BLM, but it was at a small scale so hard to decipher. I knew one passage I particularly wanted to visit, so we headed that way. A lot of Antelope Springs Cave consists of a tube with domes and floors that suddenly drop off.

We found some wonderful colors in the rock and formation.

We also found a lot of tight spots. We had to try some. Here's Desert Boy going through one. A couple adults went through this little hole too. The cave is warm, but when you're belly crawling, it feels even warmer.

There's not a lot of graffiti in the cave, but some. We explained cave conservation to the boys and how it is really bad form (not to mention illegal) to spray paint or write on the walls. We also explained how the arrows usually show the way out of the cave. However, sometimes the people don't know the way out, like shown below.

We spent a fun few hours looking around. This is a challenging cave, with lots of climbing, steep dropp offs, and slippery slopes. At one point I even made a webbing harness and we belayed the boys with another piece of webbing. Eventually we decided it was time to go, particularly when we got to a very slippery spot with a long, steep slope. I wanted to have the boys tied in for that, but we didn't have enough extra webbing or rope with us. So we played it safe and headed back. There are a lot of potentially dangerous places in this cave where it would be easy to break a leg, so we went slow. And as you can see from the photos, we all had helmets, multiple lights, gloves, knee pads, and some even had elbow pads.

To get the boys out we used a traveling haul system. This is a haul system that moves with the patient, and although it's not as quick as a haul from the top, it could be useful in some situations. Plus it's good to practice those rescue skills regularly! For the first boy, we had the boy push up the upper ascender (a Pantin). He could only move it up about a foot at a time, so we had a lot of resets. For Desert Boy, we put a webbing leash on the Pantin that could be pulled from the top, and that worked really well. The only extra gear used besides the regular Frog system were two pulleys and a piece of webbing.

Although Desert Boy enjoyed his free ride up, we'll be doing some vertical training soon to get him ready for the climbing contests at the 2016 NSS Convention in Ely, Nevada.

The light of day is always a welcome sight after a satisfying cave trip.

After we refueled, we went to the public land near U-Dig Fossils and spent some time looking for trilobites. We didn't find many, but we did see a few, including very small ones.

Breaking rocks was a lot of fun.

Another stop on the way back was Hermit's Cave in Marjum Canyon.

We found some supplies there for the Apocalypse. The mice had found them too, unfortunately.

We also noticed some climbing bolts in the area--something we may have to return and try out.

One of our group got a flat tire, so we had to go slow. That let us get some spectacular views of Notch Peak, the highest limestone cliff in North America.

During the whole day I think we saw only one or two other vehicles. These are remote places!

Destination: Bluespring Caverns, Bedford, Indiana

Usually I post a desert destination on Mondays, but this week I have a fascinating destination from the Midwest, where I recently visited.

One evening after cave rescue classes, I was able to get away to nearby Bluespring Caverns, a commercial cave with boat tours along the Myst'ry River.

(Photo courtesy of Bluespring Caverns website)

Our after hours tour began with the owner, Jim Richards, giving us an orientation outside the visitor center/gift shop. 

Then we walked right under the building and down a steep path into a huge sinkhole, with tall trees rising all around us.
As soon as we got near the entrance, the temperature dropped from the 80s to the 50s. The interior cave temperature is about 52 degrees Fahrenheit. 

We could hear water before we see it, and we kept going down and down until we reached the river. Bluespring Caverns has the distinction of having over 21 miles of passage in it, including three miles of navigable cave stream passage, the longest in the U.S. We boarded a boat to begin our voyage.

My pictures don't do justice to what a magical trip it was. Once we left the dock, the only lights were those on the boat, so it was dark up ahead and dark behind us. We felt like explorers (with a really knowledgeable guide). At times we could see that  the water was only a few inches deep, while other times we didn't know how far the murky depths extended.

Much of the cave has been explored by cave divers, who have found numerous side passages, like the one shown above. We could even feel some air flow from this hole. The cave was found in the 1800s and we could only imagine what the earliest explorers thought as they went about with rudimentary gear.

Being an ecologist, one of my favorite things was looking for cave life. I saw some white crayfish and also cave-adapted Northern Cavefish (Photo above, courtesy of Bluespring Caverns website). The fish seemed to like hanging out near the walls of the cave.  

Not only were the sights marvelous, but also the sounds of the cave, the gentle movement of the boat, and the river's current as it moved through the cave, slowly eroding away the limestone rock to make larger passages.

The tour lasted about an hour, and then we got to take a peek at the overnight facilities. In the winter months, the caverns offers youth group camping, with a boat tour, a "wild" adventure tour, and then camping on bunkbeds in an upper part of the cave. It looked like it would be a lot of fun.

I would definitely recommend a trip to Bluespring Caverns--it kept me smiling the whole time and I can still picture myself cruising slowly on the underground river. For more information, take a look at the Bluespring Caverns website.

Desert Destination: Down into a Deep, Dark Cave

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to meet up with some other cavers and go to a deep pit in Nevada. It's been a few months since I've been on rope, so I was excited to have a chance to go into a cave that was reportedly 160 feet deep.

 

We hiked up into the pinyon-juniper forest, and then the cave just suddenly appeared. There wasn't a big cliff with a gaping hole. Instead we found a small limestone outcrop with a gaping hole, but it wouldn't have been visible to anyone unless they happened to walk by it. I can only imagine the reactions of the first person who found it--and the first person who entered it, not knowing if he had enough rope to reach the bottom.

We had some clue how deep the cave was, and we brought two ropes for safety sake.

We also did some rescue practice before we went into the cave so if someone needed to be pulled out of the pit, each person would know how to do it. It's always good to practice these things before you need to use them.

On the way down we wanted to check out a lead that went behind these formations. It looked intriguing, but unfortunately didn't go too far.

There was an interesting moth hanging out there.

And part of a jawbone of a small rodent next to some rodent scat.

Bill rappelled down to join me and take a look around. Then Tom came, and then we went down even further into the cave.

I stopped to take a look at this lizard, which I thought was dead. But Bill later saw it twitch and considered doing the great lizard rescue. 

I rappelled down to the bottom--well almost to the bottom. I ran out of rope, and it was 200 feet long. Fortunately, the rope ran out on a steep slope that I could walk on. So the cave is definitely deeper than the 160 feet we had been told about--and deeper than 200 feet!

At the bottom were some large formations in a room that was about 60 feet in circumference and 60 feet high. There was one small passage off to the side, but it didn't go too far.

There was a lot of popcorn and what sort of looked like aragonite.

And a poor snake had fallen into the cave and decayed there.

In a little side passage we found a tiny cave shield, only about six inches across.

Here's Tom, who was happy to make it to the bottom. He didn't have such a big grin when he first got out of the cave.

Here's Tom coming up the last section. He had worked up quite a sweat. It's not so easy hauling your own weight up 200 feet of rope, especially when you only move about a foot or so at a time.

He's slowly making progress, escaping from the deep void and into the fresh air.

Go, Tom, go. He manages to pull himself up the last bit.

And then he steps off to the side and can get off rope and relax.

Although it's always thrilling to go into a cave, especially one that's deep, and especially into one you haven't been into before, it's really nice to get back to sunlight--or clouds--again. 

A Better-Than-Expected Adventure

With our very warm March, we spent more time outdoors than usual, and one Sunday we decided to take a hike to check out a cave I had the coordinates to. I didn't have much more information than the coordinates, so we didn't know what to expect. We packed up and enjoyed the hike, seeing a few splashes of color as wildflowers like Indian paintbrush (above) and milkvetch (below) bloomed.

This juniper on the top of a cliff looked like a bonsai tree.

It took us about 45 minutes to find the cave. I rigged a rope to check out the entrance and found this western fence lizard hanging out on a midden part way down.

I had managed to forget a descent device (never mind that I have seven), so I rappelled on a munter. (It's great to know different techniques--if you'd like to learn more, check out this upcoming cave rescue training.) Then I climbed out and lowered my husband and Desert Boy. Desert Girl didn't want to be lowered, and I wanted to move the rope to an easier spot to get out of the cave, so we went in from this side, where we could see the dark mouth of the cave beckoning.

We only found one historic signature in the cave, Cliff Bellander on June 25, 1955.

The entrance descended steeply over boulders and cobbles.

Before long we saw old, weathered formations. The floor was primarily a packrat midden.

The cave kept descending fast, and I was glad I had my 20 feet of webbing to help belay the kids down the steep sections.

Most of the cave was very dry, but we did find this wet formation with very pretty decorations.

The cave wasn't large, but it was certainly larger than we were expecting. And more beautiful too. It's such a treat when things turn out that way! Then it was time to head out. Desert Boy scrambled out with the help of the rope before I even finished taking photos. Desert Girl tried, but needs a little more strength.

She was happy to be hauled out.

I wanted to get a family photo, but those seem to be hard to get when we all look happy.

We knew the truck wasn't far, and the kids wanted to get to the snacks. So they took off. I was impressed with how Desert Girl ran through the bushes, jumping over small obstacles.

I was a lot slower, pausing to take photos, like this bitterbrush seed.

It was a fun adventure and a good day.