Taking Kids Caving

 A few weekends ago we joined two other families for a kids' caving trip. We had five adults and six kids, ages 2 to 8. All of the adults have been in multiple caves before, so we knew what to expect, even though it was a new cave for over half the group. We had helmets and lights for everyone, plus kneepads for most.

As we went into the cave, we kept an eye out for wildlife. We spotted these fox tracks on some flowstone. We saw a lot of fox scat too.

As we got back to the more delicate parts of the cave, we reminded the kids to be very careful what they touched, as one misstep could damage a formation that had taken many thousands of years to form. The kids were great about caving softly. They also loved it when we told them they could lead the way through the mazy section.

Caving with kids is so much fun because they have such a sense of wonderment. It makes us adults slow down and smell the roses cave.

Kids also make caving look really easy, as they don't have to crawl and stoop walk as much as adults.

We spent longer in the cave than we were expecting because we were having so much fun checking it all out. We didn't even get to see the whole thing, so we will have to go back again.

Here's our group of happy kids after the cave trip (plus one dog who patiently waited for us at the top).

If you'd like to learn more about how to cave safely and softly, here's a link to the National Speleological Society techniques page.