Cavechat.org

First I wanted to say Hi to everyone since I'm new here and all and also wanted to ask what caves in Maryland where best to explore. I have never been caving before so I'm a rookie but me and my friend are very athletic and would love to start exploring some awesome caves. Anyways caves closer to Montgomery Country Maryland would be the best since that is where I live but I don't mind having to drive an hour or two to go exploring. Thanks!

Nice! Good to know there's some other people in MoCo itching to get underground. The Potomac Speleological Club, D.C. Grotto, and Tri-State Grotto all meet in places not too far away so definitely check one or more of them out. As far as I know there are no documented caves in Montgomery County but there are some small ones in Frederick County and a fair bit more in Washington, Allegeny, and Garret Counties.

Yea I did some researching and there really isn't anything until you get to the edges of MD, it's all good though just means a longer drive. Thanks for the info though!

The best caves in MD are located in VA and WVA.

Yep, there are no worthwhile caves in MD (hehe... suckers).

I agree though. If I were going to do a lot of traveling for recreational caving, I'd honestly skip *most* of the MD caves and just keep driving right on into WV or VA. If you're looking for some good project caving though, you need look no further than MD.

Speaking of which the Tri-State Grotto picnic is at Crystal Grottoes this Saturday, so I'll finally be able to find some caving to do after trying unsuccessfully for about 2 months.

That's very good news! I was becoming rather disappointed that you had no luck with them. The area has some nice (if smaller) caves, you just have to find people who know about them. If you go into CG, ask about the digging efforts... I hear it's bigger than what it used to be.

I'll make sure to check it out, I saw their other dig sites near the meeting place and they're doing another dig in August, they say they're getting close. As for small MD caves, for some odd reason I seem to enjoy even small caves around here better than anything in NY that is bigger, probably because the dirt is orange and not a dull gray.

"As far as I know there are no documented caves in Montgomery County" muddyface

It turns out that there actually is one in Montgomery County, Maryland. It's called Devil's Den Cave in Paint Branch on the Federal Research Center property in the White Oak area of Silver Spring. It's about 60 feet in length.
http://www.eopb.org/watershed_info/devils_den.php

Sounds like it is man-made.

Greg Jones wrote:"
It turns out that there actually is one in Montgomery County, Maryland. It's called Devil's Den Cave in Paint Branch on the Federal Research Center property in the White Oak area of Silver Spring. It's about 60 feet in length.

I used to work there before it was the Federal Research Center. If I had known about it, I would have checked it out.

The caves get better the farther west you in Maryland. Maryland does have some nice caves if you know where to look.

Washington County has 60% of the caves in Maryland. Come join TriState Grotto.

Allegany County has some large caves, but difficult land owners and a couple very big caves of high skill level makes Washington County a better bet for entry level caving. Join a grotto. A very good place to start.