Go to this website's home page and site map.

Big Boy Canyons

Big Boy Canyons was discovered in the winter of 2000/2001. It is located near one of the largest caves in Tennessee. Steve MacDonnell studied the topos and the land and picked what he thought would be a likely place for a cave to be and he went ridge riding. He found the area and sent Mark Moore down into the hollow to check for any leads. Well...Mark couldn't miss the hole that you could drive a jeep through. They moved a couple of rocks and opened up a big cave!

The cave is generally a canyon cave. It has two known waterfalls, one a small, 30 footer and the other an impressive 60+ footer in a tall dome. Most of the cave is walking passage with a few crawls and a couple of drops if you feel the need to be on rope. The first time that I visited the cave Jerrell Killian and Mark Moore led us to a new passage that was waiting to be explored and we entered what was later to be named the Hall of Hearts. This area is the prettiest known area of the cave and features draperies, flowstone, stalactites, and a large, white waterfall flowstone. Fortunately this area is near the rear of the cave and will hopefully only be discovered by cavers and not spelunkers, rockhounds, or otherwise.

The cave is being surveyed now and is jsut about at 3,000 feet (1,000 meters), almost all of which is nice, user friendly cave.

Update: Andrew Dickins, Rob Perrin, and myself, all of the Upper Cumberland Grotto visited this cave on May 27th, 2001 for a conservation and flagging trip. One of the showpiece formations in the cave had been climbed during initial exploration and mud was deposited on the face and at the base. Andrew hauled a hand pump sprayer filled with water from Blue Spring through the cave. We found a pool in the cave that is deep enough to fill the sprayer, but it is not too far from the entrance and it is home to albino cave crawfish, so I hate to take the water from that pool. So we hauled a heavy sprayer through the cave. I spent some time cleaning the formation and the surrounding flowstone. We flagged off the passage allowing access for viewing and photographing. If you look closely at the photo showing the flagging you can distinctly see the difference between the mud covered footpath and the surrounding flowstone. We made quite a difference and I am pleased with the results. I am thankful to Jerrel Killian and Mark Moore who let Kristen Bobo and I enter this passage when it was virgin. I photographed it that day and I have the only photos showing the formation totally undamaged. There is an original photo on page two of this site, along with a new photo showing the flagging in the trail as it exists in May, 2001, about 6 months after it's discovery.

Enjoy the photos.

All photos on this page taken with a Kodak DC 215 digital camera. All photos copyright Jay Greene 2001.

Go directly to Big Boy Canyons photo page two.

A ghostly Mark Joop in one of the first canyons encountered in Big Boy Canyons.

Mark Joop gives Kristen Bobo a "leg up" in Big Boy Canyons. Rob Perrin looks on.

Jay, your web author, standing in one of the namesake canyons in Big Boy Canyons Cave.

Andrew Dickins peers up into the heights of the canyons.

Andrew using his special, anti-gravity powers to stick to the wall of the cave.

Flowstone near the pit traverse in Big Boy Canyons.

Greg King looks out at me across the pit that must be traversed.

Some very active rimstone (gour) pools.

The active formation of flowstone.

An animal print in a rimstone pool. Looks like racoon to me. This area is pretty far from the entrance. I have no idea how old this print is, maybe a year, maybe 5,000 years, maybe older...

Flowstone, stalactites, soda straws, and helectites.

A close up of a helectite from the area shown in the photo above.

A small, crystalline rimstone pool in the Hall of Hearts.

Go to Big Boy Canyons photo page two.

Go to this website's home page and site map.