WOLF RIVER CAVE-TREMENDOUS TRUNK
August 06, 2013
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| Entrance to the Enchanted Forest |
It was a long drive from Chicago for us to Monticello Kentucky where we got a shady ass motel for the night to rest and prepare for our summer TAG trip. Noboru Sakabe, Adam Haydock, met up with Chris Parks at the roach motel to rest for a trip into Wolf River Cave and the attempt at our lofty goal of TAG pits. The weekend was to include, a horizontal trip into Wolf River Cave, and vertical trips into Conley Hole, Mystery Falls, Green's Well, Moses Tomb, and South Pittsburg Pit.
We woke up early Thursday morning so we could get a head start into Wolf River Cave. After getting lost by going the wrong way (CHRIS!), we made it to the property where Wolf River Cave is located. We geared up and entered the cave large entrance.
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| Wolf River Cave Entrance |
The Cave's passages reminded me of War Eagle Cave a bit with the large walking
breakdown sections and a large stream running through it. We got to the Towering Inferno room which was a mountain room that we had to scale in order to continue on to more cave passage. At the top of the Towering Inferno it must have been 70-75 degrees!!...It was fucking hot up there. That's pretty warm for a Tennessee cave. The reason why its so hot is because its a heat trap and the heat collects up there so it stays pretty freakin warm towards the top.
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| Wolf River Cave Towering Inferno |
We scaled the Towering Inferno and thought we were on the right course but ended up finding ourselves going in circles in some side passage rooms that I refer to as the merry go round section. We came back around to the Towering Inferno and found a crawl that took us up to the Tremendous Trunk.
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| Wolf River Cave, entrance to the Tremendous Trunk |
The Tremendous Trunk is one of the two main sections in Wolf River Cave. The Tremendous Trunk has large connections to the Enchanted Forest, Milk and Butter room, Aborigine Avenue as well as some other side passage ways. We spent the bulk of our time in this section of the cave. The other section is called the Horrendous Highway which consists of waterfall rooms, Jaguar bones and foot prints.
Originally we wanted to go down the Tremendous Trunk but decided on the horrendous side to save time but found out that we were on the Tremendous side of the cave. Yup, we got turned around a bit in this one! We continued down the passage and found a side section to the cave that had Gypsum Flowers growing on the ceiling. This was a interesting encounter to see as the crystal curls around on itself and creates this flower looking design. They look like the finger nails of a witch and if I had discovered these crystals, that is what I would have named them, crazy bonnie the witch crystals or some shit like that.
Originally we wanted to go down the Tremendous Trunk but decided on the horrendous side to save time but found out that we were on the Tremendous side of the cave. Yup, we got turned around a bit in this one! We continued down the passage and found a side section to the cave that had Gypsum Flowers growing on the ceiling. This was a interesting encounter to see as the crystal curls around on itself and creates this flower looking design. They look like the finger nails of a witch and if I had discovered these crystals, that is what I would have named them, crazy bonnie the witch crystals or some shit like that.
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| Gypsum Flower Crystals |
We continued down the passage and encountered large rooms with mounds of breakdown to climb over in order to continue on to the Enchanted Forest and the Milk and Butter Room.
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| Wolf River Cave, Tremendous Trunk |
The passages got bigger and the breakdown mounds took some time to scale but we were able to get to the Milk and Butter Room in decent time.
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| Milk and Butter room. Can you see the two hobbits in the picture? :) |
The Milk and Butter room has a pit on one side and a series of
waterfalls on the other side that contained small fossils and break down that appears to be pretty new. I am not sure why they call it the Milk and Butter room unless its because of all the mud that gets caked onto you but we continued on to take a short cut so we could get into the Enchanted Forest quicker to save time so we found a hole in the room and proceeded into the passage.
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| Wolf River Cave Treasure Chamber passage |
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| Wolf River Cave Treasure Chamber |
Shortly after the Treasure Chamber we made our way over to our final destination, The Enchanted Forest of Wolf River Cave!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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| Wolf River Cave Enchanted Forest |
This section of the cave is beautiful!!!. There are all kinds of formations in a walking/stooping passage that leads to a dig as well as the end of this cave system section. It is beautiful to be walking past all the drapery, flowstone, and formations made of white gypsum as it felt like we were in a forest of sorts with crystals sparkling around us.
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| Wolf River Cave Enchanted Forest |
We stayed in the enchanted forest for about an hour and decided to turn around knowing we had a long drive to Manchester TN. We wanted to make sure we got there at a decent hour and get a good night sleep so we could wake up early for Conley Hole and Mystery Falls.
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| Wolf River Cave Enchanted Forest passage. |
4 comments
The pictures and account of Wolf River Cave, Fentress County, TN brought back fond memories. I haven't been caving in over 20 years, but back in the mid to late 70s Wolf River Cave was one of my favorites. I'm glad to see that the magnificent gypsum crystal flowers are still there, as I remember them. Cave photography was so much harder back then.
ReplyDeleteHello, I am glad you enjoyed reading about our experience in Wolf River. I have heard a lot of stories about how this cave had been a great experience for many people. Thank you for sharing.
DeleteYes, it was back in 1985, when I was a member of the Richmond Area Speleological Society (RASS), that I had the pleasure to navigate this cave. It would have been nice if you got pictures of the Indian footprints, and the wolf tracks that are both embedded in the ground, As well as the fake floor, and how the broken down back entrance was closed off with soda straws and formations so that no one could get through. It was deemed through carbon samples left in that area of the cave, that those foot prints dated back 2,000 years, and was thought to be a place of ritual.
ReplyDeleteyes, I wish I got back to the that section of the cave, there are some other sections of the cave that have similar artifacts and a few more paw prints. Amazing place!!! thank you for sharing the dated prints. That is interesting!
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