XJBANKER
0IIIIII0
- Location
- Layton, Utah
This might not be the right place to post this trip report so the mods can move it if needed.
To start off I am not the best at telling stories and the photos are not the greatest, they are taken with old point and shoot cameras that have been beat up from the conditions and have seen their fair share of dirt. Hopefully I can get my excitement across and share the adventure with everyone sitting in front of the computer wishing you were somewhere else.
I beleive that the memories that we have in life are of the things that are different from our mundane days that we remember. When your child does something new for the first time. The first time you see the ocean or your first loud concert that your parents did not approve of. Any chance that I can make another memory to stick in my book of life I try to capitalize on the chance. Most of the time I can get my wife to join me or she approves the activity without much effort on my part but this trip took a little convincing and was way past her comfort level.
A coworker of mine contracts with the Forest Service in searching out Caves in certain parts of Utah and explores them, maps them and checks on areas that they are concerned about or want to know if certain areas of the caves have opened up. He came to me on Thursday and asked if I would be interested in joining him on searching a cave that he has spent the last couple of years exploring and thought we could make a good day trip out of it. After begging my wife she finaly agreed and four of us headed out on the long drive from Salt Lake City to Vernal at 7:00am. Other than my co-worker and I none of us had ever met before so we was a good 3 1/2 hour drive to get to know eachother and plan out how the trip would go.
After stopping for breakfast (and a free old folks concert at the local Burger King) in Vernal we arrived at the parking area for the cave, changed into our warmer clothes, and started our half mile hike in the snow to the cave entrance.
The water entering the cave is too rough to enter into it during the summer months so the winter while it is frozen is the only time you can get access to it. In 2005 this cave entrance actually flooded and overflowed over the ledge that we are taking photos from and actually washed open another cave about 50 yards down stream. I am still amazed at the amount of water that has moved through this cave and the things that it has brought with it.
There is a huge log jam at the entrance at the bottom left and this is where you beging to make your body into a pretzel trying to push your way through. The original path we were going to take was sealed up with sand, rocks and logs so we had to change our plans and head for a different part of the cave. About 10 min into our hands and knees crawl the cave opened up to the window room where we could walk again.
About three or four minutes later we got to the commitment point where it seems the local High School parties stop and the real caving begins. We did not know how long we were going to be in the Cave and were not too excited to get wet yet, so off came the shoes for the first cold water crossing.
After using a spare pare of socks in my bag to dry my feet and legs we were off to the next sections of the caves where we again came to a larger water crossing with the ledge a few feet off the ground. One of the cavers in our group had rubber boots and was able to stand a little bit in the water to offer the rest of us support as we used some of the logs accound us to make a crossing by holding onto the wall to keep as mush weight as possible off the water soaked logs.
After the water sopt we were back to the hands and knees crawling and all I can say is kee pads were the best thing that I packed for this trip (besides the helmet that got a lot of use). We crawled, digged and wiggled our way through some spots to go further into the cave about an hour and a half. We got to a spot that the Forest Service wanted to know if it was open again or still blocked. After all the effort it was still blocked. We tried to dig through but it was just to tight for us.
What I could not get over in my mind was the size of some of the logs, railroad ties and tires that have been washed into and forced into the cave. The force of the water had to be amazing to get them through some of the spots that they were in that I had a hard time getting through.
There was another tunnel that branched off that went to a Canyon room that we talked about as well as about an hour back the way we came there was a log jam with a small tunnel that we wanted to explore as well. We started to head back and one of our Cavers Andy was in the lead and I was right on his heels. I waited just a minute to give him some space and after the next two corners we got to a Junction and he was gone. We had not made a final decision on what way to go and did not want him to get left behing. The three of us took turns yelling down the two tunnels trying to figure out what way he went and tried to look at the ground to see if we could track the way he went but the rocks are too numerous and you could not tell if anyone has touched them or not. We decided to leave one caver at the junction incase we went back and Neil and I went deeper into the cave towards the Canyon room to see if we could find Andy. The sound and light does not travel in this cave and Neil could just get around the corner from me and could not hear me if I yelled and if I turned off my light there was no trace of any light in the cave. In once spot I stopped to rest for about five minutes with my light off and my eyes never adjusted and I could not see my fingers in front of my face. I can only imagine the tricks that your mind would play on you if you were down there for a long time with the darkness and the silence. neil and i finally came to the conclusion that Andy had not come this way and we headed back to meet up with Jason at the junction where Andy had not returned there either. About 20 feet up the cave around a corner we found him eating his lunch waiting for us. Another learning experience on how three people yelling could not be heard due to the way the walls and the darkness swallow up the sound.
Our guide Jason has never been to this part of the cave and it was a spot that the Forest service wanted to know that the conditions were like so we made our way back to the log jam to see what was there. If you did not know this tunnel was here you would have a very hard time finding it. It is amazing the difference a map makes and the amount of time people spent down there to survey and map the cave out. Right now there is almost 6 miles of cave mapped at a depth of almost 700 ft and there is still more not explored. This is the longest documented cave in Utah. When we got through the log jam we were greeted with the option of getting wet and seeing more of the cave that none of us in our party has seen or we could turn back. We decided you are not a real caver unless you are willing to get wet so wet we got.
There were a couple of pools through the Glowing Stream that were thigh high and some tight spots you had to climb over a log twice that crossed into a hole. We came to a hole that dropped off about 6'-7' and we had to help eachother down into the room that opened up that could have fit my house in it.
To start off I am not the best at telling stories and the photos are not the greatest, they are taken with old point and shoot cameras that have been beat up from the conditions and have seen their fair share of dirt. Hopefully I can get my excitement across and share the adventure with everyone sitting in front of the computer wishing you were somewhere else.
I beleive that the memories that we have in life are of the things that are different from our mundane days that we remember. When your child does something new for the first time. The first time you see the ocean or your first loud concert that your parents did not approve of. Any chance that I can make another memory to stick in my book of life I try to capitalize on the chance. Most of the time I can get my wife to join me or she approves the activity without much effort on my part but this trip took a little convincing and was way past her comfort level.
A coworker of mine contracts with the Forest Service in searching out Caves in certain parts of Utah and explores them, maps them and checks on areas that they are concerned about or want to know if certain areas of the caves have opened up. He came to me on Thursday and asked if I would be interested in joining him on searching a cave that he has spent the last couple of years exploring and thought we could make a good day trip out of it. After begging my wife she finaly agreed and four of us headed out on the long drive from Salt Lake City to Vernal at 7:00am. Other than my co-worker and I none of us had ever met before so we was a good 3 1/2 hour drive to get to know eachother and plan out how the trip would go.
After stopping for breakfast (and a free old folks concert at the local Burger King) in Vernal we arrived at the parking area for the cave, changed into our warmer clothes, and started our half mile hike in the snow to the cave entrance.
The water entering the cave is too rough to enter into it during the summer months so the winter while it is frozen is the only time you can get access to it. In 2005 this cave entrance actually flooded and overflowed over the ledge that we are taking photos from and actually washed open another cave about 50 yards down stream. I am still amazed at the amount of water that has moved through this cave and the things that it has brought with it.
There is a huge log jam at the entrance at the bottom left and this is where you beging to make your body into a pretzel trying to push your way through. The original path we were going to take was sealed up with sand, rocks and logs so we had to change our plans and head for a different part of the cave. About 10 min into our hands and knees crawl the cave opened up to the window room where we could walk again.
About three or four minutes later we got to the commitment point where it seems the local High School parties stop and the real caving begins. We did not know how long we were going to be in the Cave and were not too excited to get wet yet, so off came the shoes for the first cold water crossing.
After using a spare pare of socks in my bag to dry my feet and legs we were off to the next sections of the caves where we again came to a larger water crossing with the ledge a few feet off the ground. One of the cavers in our group had rubber boots and was able to stand a little bit in the water to offer the rest of us support as we used some of the logs accound us to make a crossing by holding onto the wall to keep as mush weight as possible off the water soaked logs.
After the water sopt we were back to the hands and knees crawling and all I can say is kee pads were the best thing that I packed for this trip (besides the helmet that got a lot of use). We crawled, digged and wiggled our way through some spots to go further into the cave about an hour and a half. We got to a spot that the Forest Service wanted to know if it was open again or still blocked. After all the effort it was still blocked. We tried to dig through but it was just to tight for us.
What I could not get over in my mind was the size of some of the logs, railroad ties and tires that have been washed into and forced into the cave. The force of the water had to be amazing to get them through some of the spots that they were in that I had a hard time getting through.
There was another tunnel that branched off that went to a Canyon room that we talked about as well as about an hour back the way we came there was a log jam with a small tunnel that we wanted to explore as well. We started to head back and one of our Cavers Andy was in the lead and I was right on his heels. I waited just a minute to give him some space and after the next two corners we got to a Junction and he was gone. We had not made a final decision on what way to go and did not want him to get left behing. The three of us took turns yelling down the two tunnels trying to figure out what way he went and tried to look at the ground to see if we could track the way he went but the rocks are too numerous and you could not tell if anyone has touched them or not. We decided to leave one caver at the junction incase we went back and Neil and I went deeper into the cave towards the Canyon room to see if we could find Andy. The sound and light does not travel in this cave and Neil could just get around the corner from me and could not hear me if I yelled and if I turned off my light there was no trace of any light in the cave. In once spot I stopped to rest for about five minutes with my light off and my eyes never adjusted and I could not see my fingers in front of my face. I can only imagine the tricks that your mind would play on you if you were down there for a long time with the darkness and the silence. neil and i finally came to the conclusion that Andy had not come this way and we headed back to meet up with Jason at the junction where Andy had not returned there either. About 20 feet up the cave around a corner we found him eating his lunch waiting for us. Another learning experience on how three people yelling could not be heard due to the way the walls and the darkness swallow up the sound.
Our guide Jason has never been to this part of the cave and it was a spot that the Forest service wanted to know that the conditions were like so we made our way back to the log jam to see what was there. If you did not know this tunnel was here you would have a very hard time finding it. It is amazing the difference a map makes and the amount of time people spent down there to survey and map the cave out. Right now there is almost 6 miles of cave mapped at a depth of almost 700 ft and there is still more not explored. This is the longest documented cave in Utah. When we got through the log jam we were greeted with the option of getting wet and seeing more of the cave that none of us in our party has seen or we could turn back. We decided you are not a real caver unless you are willing to get wet so wet we got.
There were a couple of pools through the Glowing Stream that were thigh high and some tight spots you had to climb over a log twice that crossed into a hole. We came to a hole that dropped off about 6'-7' and we had to help eachother down into the room that opened up that could have fit my house in it.
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