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A Secret Cave

This cave is located quite close to where I live and was shown to me by Andrew Dickins. It is found on a hillside that is littered with large, exposed karst features. Karst refers to a landscape that shows exposed rock and tends to swallow water into caves, pits, and sinking streams. Amongst the hundreds of boulders scattered around the ridgeside there is a little pit entrance into the cave. The first part is a climbdown into a standing area where the remains of an old gate are present. The rigging point is here for the 12.5 meter (40 foot) descent into the main cave passage.

The cave splits left and right at the bast of the entrance drop. The left hand passage ends rather quickly amongst myriad dried formations. The right hand passage continues into a room that features several deep, dry rimstone pools. Some of the pools contain cave pearls. Beyond the rimstone pools the passage opens into a larger room that features huge flowstone walls with large draperies and stalactites. This room is mostly beige in color and is very scenic. To the left of this room the passage continues behind the flowstone to a heavily decorated area and another pit. The pit does not lead to any more extensive horizontal passage.

The photos here were all taken with a Kodak DC 215 digital camera. The resolution has been greatly reduced to enhance loading time. All photos copyrighted by Jay Greene, 2001.

The climbdown entrance amongst the boulders. It seems rather obvious until you consider that the hillside has hundreds of boulders just like these scattered all around it. This initial climbdown leads to an area that you can stand in and has remains of the old gate.

Greg King free climbs into the entrance room where you rig to descend.

Greg and Andrew look past the gate remains into the pit.

Jim Haynes ascends the pit as I look down from above.

Mostly dry rimstone pools in the cave that feature encrusted cave pearls.

A view across several rimstone dams. Each dam is about two feet (.8 meter) tall.

Cave pearls.

A glistening white calcite stalagmite.

Black cave popcorn on one of the walls in the cave.

A very active and wet stalagmite surrounded by several tiny micro gour pools.

Jim Haynes peers out from behind a wall of draperies and stalactites.

Flowstone and draperies in the main gallery of the cave.

A wall of flowstone.

Jim standing on some flowstone (at my request). Many others had stood there before but even so, cave visitors should refrain from touching formations whenever possible.

Jim behind flowstone again.

Another white stalagmite with tiny micro gour pools.

A crystalline formation located beside the second pit in the rear of the cave.

Jim in the rear portion of the cave standing near the pit. This portion of the cave is heavily decorated.

An interesting cluster of stalagmites and helectites. The color contrasts are interesting as well.

This photo shows the left hand passage at the base of the initial drop. It features breakdown and a lot of dry formations like these.

Jim Haynes ascending out of the cave. He is struggling to keep the kroll ascender attached because the webbing chest harness keeps slipping off of his shoulders. I had the same problem with this climbing setup. That is what happens when you use someone else's equipment that is not custom fit to your body.

Uhhhhhhh, I am not sure what to say about this flowstone formation. It sort of speaks for itself, huh? This is a totally natural formation in the cave, located near the rimstone dams.

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