Castle Rock cave is located in the southwest region of the State of Wisconsin.   There are not many caves out here in this region but Castle Rock cave is not only a limestone cave it is a spring resurgence that is completely submerged underwater. We completed our training dives in nearby submerged mines for our Full cave certification so Tamara Thompson took us over for a unique experience. 

Tammi taught us how to utilize our diving equipment in a no mount configuration so we are able to push our tanks ahead of us in tight restrictive passages in order to continue exploration. The cave entrance was really small and we could only crawl into the entrance with surging water pressure evacuating from inside of the cave

We donned our wetsuits so we would rip our dry suits by going through the tight squeezes within the cave.  

 The water was around 52 degrees F and we strapped two AL 80s to each other along with extra lights to the center counsel of the no mount configuration. Inside the cave, there were varnished walls and some sign of phreatic erosion on the walls.

Eventually we made it to the “cheese grater” which is a particularly narrow section where all of our gear was dragging between the ceiling and the floor of the cave. 

 

Adam Haydock pushing inside of Castle Rock Cave, Wisconsin.

 It was a rather tight squeeze but the clear visibility of the water made the push a bit easier, though when we would go through a plume of silt would kick up and turn our visibility to zero.

  Luckly, we had a lot of flow which would clear away the silt and bring our visibility back to a very clear condition.  

 We wanted to continue exploration but not only did we find the local muskrats ate away at the dive line, we were reaching our thirds so we turned our dive back to the entrance. 

We came back out and entered the cave again to lay some more line and that’s when I felt something run right over my back, it was a muskrat!  There is a family of muskrats living inside of an airbell within this cave.  

 

Adam Haydock pushing inside of Castle Rock Cave, Wisconsin.

 We understand that this cave is around 550ft in total length and there is a dry section up in the hill that might connect to the cave one day. We are grateful that we got to learn how to no mount dive and I am sure it will come in handy with future explorations.