Cave dig at Grand Canyon Caverns Arizona

[Wayne Harrison]

Cavers,

The next dig at Grand Canyon Caverns is scheduled for the weekend of June
2-3. Since I will be unable to make it this time, please email Paul
Jorgenson ke7hr@cox.net if you plan to attend.

Previous digs have started Saturday morning around 9, and continued until
late in the evening with breaks for lunch and dinner. Digging on Sunday
generally runs until about 2 in the afternoon before cleanup and closing
down the dig.

Camping is free for the cavers, and rooms can be obtained at the motel for a
half-off rate of $40/night. There are showers at the campground. Anyone
wishing to reserve a room should call the front desk and do so. There are
five rooms currently set aside for the cavers on Saturday night. If you'd
like to reserve a room, call before Monday 4/30 and let the front desk know
you're with the cavers digging that weekend.


The number at the front desk is 1-877-422-4459. Their website is at
http://gccaverns.com/

[CaveGimp]

Thanks for posting this here Wayne. For those in the area, if you are interested in join us, please let Paul know and meet us there. For anyone in the Phoenix area that Friday, June 1st, you are welcome to join the Central Arizona Grotto for our monthly meeting. E-mail me at tooleyg@cox.net for directions.

Glenn
CAG Treasurer
NSS 54570

[wendy]

This sounds cool and fun, can you give anymore info on the dig itself? I have been known to travel, who knows maybe one of these days i'll come out and dig with you guys.

[CaveGimp]

The dig takes place every month, the Sataturday after the first Friday of every month, when we have our grotto meetings. The dig is at Grand Canyon Caverns, a nice show cave in north western Arizona, off of Route 66. If you have seen the movie cars, the cave is only a few miles from Radiator Springs (Peach Springs AZ). :) The cave is blowing a lot of air from the back. When the conditions are just right, its hard to open the elevator doors on the surface, and the wind blows a lot of stuff in the gift shop. We are using an eletric hammer drill right now. We have a generator from the surface to power the dig, and are now part of the tour. The guides love to tell folks about the cavers digging to expand the cave. We have been invited there by the owners who take good care of us. I don't know exactly how much progress we have made, but its still blowing.

Any specifics you would like to know?

[bill fish]

Neat

I always love hearing about blowing digs....and unfortunately digging on them :)

How much potential does this dig have? Is the local geology favorable for many many miles of passage?

Have you guys done even a rough measure of how much air blow in and out in a day?

How fast is the wind blowing in say a passage dimension of X by Y feet?

Because if you have done even that and make rough assumptions about barometric pressure changes and typical passage dimensions you can get a good enough estimate of how much passage may await...

There is a caver....Bruce Zerr?...who I think is on the cave diggers "newsgroup" who could probably give you a bunch of helpful theorectical and practical pointers on getting and using cave airflow data...

You said the cave and tour were pretty good...I was out that way eons ago...and ran across thier brochure somewhere.....and I remember that sucker at the time was crappy enough that I wasnt going to go hundreds of miles outa my way based on just that brochure.....hopefully they have something better now.....

Now...here is an interesting problem....

How are you guys gonna divy up the booty once you make a big breakthrough?

Over and Over again in caver history...a few hardy individuals dig and dig and dig at some gawd awful place with no help..but boy o boy once the breakthrough is done...there are plently of people to "help" and even to take over and pretty much kick the original diggers from the project altogether....

That problem might make for an interesting thread/discusion of its own..

Anyhow...certainly exciting to hear about such a blowing dig!

Blll

[CaveGimp]

Lots of good questions, most I don't have the answers to, but may be able to get them.

As far as airflow it is less than what I have seen at Big Manhole in NM, but that is a measurement based on what I "felt" so not very scientific.

There is a rumor that someone at sometime did some seismic testing in the area that showed large voids. We are working on trying to find this study, but it may be just "Show Cave" lore.

There is also the “rumor” that there is an air passage to the Grand Canyon. Apparently someone pumped a bunch of red smoke into the cave, and a few weeks later red smoke was seen in the canyon. Hence the name.

It does blow air so we are hopeful. As far as who gets the spoils, I’m sure Rich Bohman has a plan and it will likely be based on how many hours you have put in the dig. This is still an infant of a dig and hasn’t been hit with a lot of people, mainly a small group of CAG cavers.