We arrived between 10:00 and 11:00 am, after picking up a few GeoCaches along the way. After we had secured a parking spot, geared up, and calmed the local wildlife (read that as petted a dog and a cat), we prepared for the “arduous” three minute hike to the entrance. The three foot wide by three foot tall entrance is nestled at the base of a hillside and was draped in ferns, making it very scenic. I was really surprised to see that the entrance crawlway was completely dry! Usually, we would have to crawl or stoop and get a significant portion of our lower torso soaked. Today, we simply crawled in and remained dry.
The short entrance crawlway quickly yielded walking passage; unfortunately, the locals are aware of this cave as evident by the graffiti. We choose to stay in the stream passage as our trip went from walking to crawling, then stooping, until we were back to walking. We proceeded past Bat Alley (see map) to the “Low Spot” which is beneath a lovely Flowstone Wall. Instead of crawling in the water (Don’t forget, we were still dry!), we opted to backtrack down the passage about 30 feet and climb up the walls so we could pass the flowstone obstruction via a high route. Once I was on the other side, Jerry broke out the camera and we took a variety of photos.
With that photo session over, we continued exploring the stream passage. I always enjoy strolling down deeply scalloped passageways, like those that are dominant in this cavern. Before long we were at the 30 Foot Waterfall Dome, which was dripping some, and we had stopped for a few more photo sessions. Another thousand feet and we were back down on our hands and knees discussing the merits of pushing the water-crawl amongst the breakdown. We decided to save that for other day, and retreated back to the walking passage.
Heading back toward the entrance, we decided to try and find the Upper Level Passageway. We found a likely spot, climbed up, and started into the corridor with the ceiling ever lowering. Before long we were crawling in deep sand sprinkled with LOTS of bat droppings – quite an active route apparently.
It didn’t take long before we thought we were in the wrong place, retreated, and relocated to the Waterfall. Continuing down the main passage, we eventually climbed back up into the upper level to be greeted with piles and piles of guano. Seriously, we had some very large piles averaging two to three feet high in places. The Upper Level either has, or had at one point, a very active bat colony. We had no interest in stepping in these landmarks, and carefully sidestepped them as we toured the Upper Level route with all of its glory (it does have a nice variety of Speleothems; albeit somewhat vandalized in places.)
All in all, we spent about two and a half hours in the cave taking a variety of photographs and exploring the various areas.
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