Cavechat.org

Hey, I'm new here. I don't have very much caving experience but I've done a little bit. I live just north of Atlanta in Cumming, Ga. I'm 18 and a working student so I don't have very many days that I can set aside to spend go far away. I've been looking around and trying to find some caves more in my area but I haven't had much luck. I don't want stuff in the very top of Georgia near the state line. I'm looking for stuff closer to Atlanta and the suburbs. Does anyone know of any good caves in the Atlanta area or just north of it? Thanks for any help!

Members of the Atlanta based caving organization called the Dogwood City Grotto would probably be able to answer your question the best because they are familiar with the area.

According to this article, the closest caves to Atlanta are in Bartow County, Georgia an hour Northwest of Atlanta. Here is a link to that article: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/arti ... ment/caves.

And here is a link to the karst of the United States which includes Georgia (these highlighted areas are where you will find caves): http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1352/data/USA_karst.pdf.

There really aren't any caves until you hit the I-75 corridor north of Lake Allatoona.
Bartow County is the closest, but keep in mind the Kingston Cave, as you see in the top picture is closed and may be visited only with permission.
The other caves in Bartow are small and not terribly interesting. You're not going to see anything impressive until you get into far NW Georgia.

I also recommend the Dogwood City Grotto. We meet the first Tuesday of the month at the REI store on I-85, in between Clairmont and N. Druid Hills roads. The next meeting is 4/7 and you are more than welcome to attend.

Hey, Dan. First off, welcome to the board.

You'll probably have to find a way closer to the tri-state area since there aren't caves in Atlanta -at least none that I know of. Bartow County does have a couple, but by then its more worth it to drive the extra 30-40 minutes to Walker County.

If you decide you want to start exploring caves regularly, talk to some people at DCG or send me a message and we'll get you connected with some people.

I have a few on my map, but they are all very short (under 100 feet)

- Stone Mountain Cave, Morgan Falls Bat Cave, Nice Gneiss Cave

*** Yeah the grotto is a good start.

bennettbike wrote:I have a few on my map, but they are all very short (under 100 feet)

- Stone Mountain Cave, Morgan Falls Bat Cave, Nice Gneiss Cave

*** Yeah the grotto is a good start.

Do you know if you need permission for any of those?

I figured I would have to go further away, I just thought I would check and see if anyone new of anything not marked on maps. Thanks guys for the help. I'll just have to find a weekend that I can get some time off to go exploring. If anyone knows of any small caves in my area that would be cool too. I would love to check some of those out since I haven't done much caving yet.

Daniel do you have caving gear?

graveleye wrote:Daniel do you have caving gear?

I do not yet. But I am not going anywhere before I get it.
I'm not looking to do any repelling type of stuff right just some easy simple caving.

get yourself hooked up and we'll see about getting you into a cave. I have access to some pretty good beginner caves and have spawned more than one avid caver right off this website.
You need a decent helmet, 3 sources of light - at least one helmet mounted. Some sturdy boots and gloves and you're ready to go for the most part.
If you need some recommendations as to what you can get by with on what budget, you're in the right place.
Got any questions just let us know.

Hi Daniel,

Welcome to CaveChat! And welcome to the world of caving!

I think that you might be able to find some good resources at these links:

- Intro to all things caving (gear, conduct, do's and don'ts): http://caves.org/safety/index.shtml. There is a lot of information at this website, so make sure that you look through all of the links on the left side.
- Find a local grotto (caving club) here: http://www.nssio.org/Find_Grotto.cfm. Go to a meeting. Let them know you're interested in going on a cave trip. They might have gear to lend you. Many grottos have "beginner" trips monthly or at some other frequency. The Georgia Tech outdoor club might also be a good resource for you.

Good luck!

Also......check out atlantaoutdoorclub.com

Occasionally people take groups caving there.

Yup, lets get him in a real cave. Not that there are fake ones. Ha