I finally reached the area and started hiking. I came upon a sandstone outcropping that had a little bit of passage underneath it. Further down, I saw a small cave and even further down I could see this one:
You can see the stream pop out behind the opening so I didn’t check this one out. I kept hiking a little more and found a nice one. I entered the bottom entrance and started to make my way through the cave. I came to two skylights but the passage kept going.
The passage got taller but it was narrow.
This cave was probably around 500ft. It needs a survey. I walked around some more but didn’t really find anything new so I went to another area that I had previously visited. I came to this cave:
I knew I had seen this one before but I didn’t remember going through it. As I looked down the entrance I noticed a snake on the wall.
I’m pretty sure this is a baby rattlesnake that doesn’t have buttons yet. He crawled up in a little hole and I let him be. I continued through a small passage that had a lot of debris and cobble on the walls.
Here you can see the rock ceiling and cobble wall.
A little further, I found some stalactites.
No, not really. They’re roots. But they looked cool.
After this cave, I explored another one with high ceilings but it was only around 100ft long. I got in the truck and drove down the road.
Don’t you love when you don’t have to hike to the cave!
This cave travels under the road and pops out into a stream bed. I was surprised to find a small chunk of amethyst in the cave. It's a really small chunk. It's hard to see in the picture but the top 1/8 inch is amethyst.
This cave had a ton of daddy long-leg spiders in it. How many can you count in this pic:
Zach Fitzner and I, along with participation from other Mesa State College students and faculty, are starting a biological inventory of claystone caves on the western slope. I've started to pay attention more to the amount of life in these caves and I've been surprised at the diversity. Everything from bats, snakes, moths, flies, pack rats, and at least three different species of spiders. We are going to have our work cut out for us.
There’s Pokey!!!
Some pack rat tracks in mud:
Drift wood inside the cave:
It was around noon by this time and it was starting to get hot. It wasn’t too bad earlier because we had some clouds and a nice breeze. But as you can see, it was still hot.
These are winter time caves but they’re close to home and I had to get out. I saw so many caves today that it’s hard to keep track of what I saw so I’m going to count now…1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 I think I saw a total of six. 3 new ones and 3 old ones. It was nice to get out but I’m glad to be back inside with the good ole air conditioning. AAHhhhh!
