Cave 2

A cave of at least 3 rooms,
one with its own lake.
Visited on July 9, 2019

1 We parked the Xterror when we reached this rough spot in the road and walked the last 1 1/2 miles to the cave.	2 A hiking we go	3 We all are hunting the cave in the vicinity of where we think it is.	4 Bob finds the cave opening we are looking for. Are you sure this isn't a den for a coyote, a mountain lion or a bear? Pretty sure it's the cave we're looking for. So in we go.
5 Once inside, we look back at the opening to the outside world. We are into what we'll find to be the 1st of 3 rooms.	6 Bob is checking his camera's settings while Suzanne registers our visit in the logbook we found in an ammunition case hanging on the wall. The only lights in the cave at this instant are our headlamps and flashlights.	7 This is what we would see if we turned off all our personal lights. Pitch black.	8 Don goes on in so Bob can get a picture using his flash in addition to our personal lights. Still in the 1st room.
9 This is a picture taken on into the first room toward the end away from the entrance..	10 There is a gap between the back wall of the 1st room and the ceiling of that room. This gap is about where the pronounced shadow is about in the center of the picture. That gap allows us to go on into the 2nd of 3 rooms.	11 Bob has gone into the 3rd room and Suzanne and Don can be seen passing thru the gap between the wall separating the first two rooms and the ceiling.	12 Bob zooms in on Suzanne and Don.
13 S & D pause to look at some interesting formations on the ceiling and walls in this area.	14 Bob takes a shot in the other direction toward the back wall of room 2. The flowstone in the foreground has formed what might be called a "bath tub"	15 S & D are still looking at the formations and trying to photograph them with their cell phones.	16 Here's what Don saw: what cavers call soda straw formations
17	18 S starts down into room 2 while D is looking at what's ahead of him.	19	20 Suzanne finds some stalactites and columns (where stalactites and stalagmites have merged together). Unfortunately this area seemed to be dry which means that are not growing.
21 A closer look at this area	22 The opposite wall formations	23	24 There are a number of cone formations on the floor of this room.
25	26	27	28
29 Flowstone: formations formed by water draining down over the area leaving some calcite behind. Some areas were damp here	30	31	32 This is the right side of the back wall
33 Suzanne finds a rope in the left back wall and begins to use it to climb up.	34 She's about to the top of the "bath tub wall:" an example of what cavers call a "rimstone dam" with lots of flowstone over it.	35 The right side of the back wall.	36 The back wall. The "bath tub" hides the back wall.
37 Suzanne is in the lower of two "bath tubs." Both are dry.	38 Suzanne finds some interesting flowstone texturized wall features	39	40
41	42 Don finds an interesting, "spooky" flowstone feature in the ceiling (center of the picture)	43 Bob zooms in for more detail.	44 Nearby are some ceiling features that seem to sparkle when illuminated.
45	46	47	48
49	50	51	52 Don climbs the rope that Suzanne found.
53 OK, but this has to lead to somewhere.	54 So he goes looking.	55	56 Some strange formations
57	58 Oh, Don found a place to look and go into a 3rd room - and it has a lake in it. Notice the reflections in the surface of the lake.	59	60 There doesn't seem to be a good way to explore this room without getting wet. We didn't bring any dry clothes on the trip so we decide to just observe from here.
61 We create some ripples on the surface of the lake.	62 Before coming down we look back at the entering wall where we came into this room.	63 We are now back on the floor of the 2nd room and take a composite of the entry wall	64
65 Suzanne contemplates climbing up to return to the 1st room from the 2nd room	66	67 We've now gone back through the 1st room and are exiting the cave. Don is the last one out. He has his tripod which he never used since we had enough flash power to get some good pictures.	68 The three spelunkers with dirty knees and hands. Good idea, Suzanne, to use those knee pads.
69 We now head for the Xterror parked about 1 1/2 miles away.	70 Hmmm. A cairn that we missed on the way in.	71

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