CAVE RIVER VALLEY ENDLESS CAVE
June 10, 2014Endless Cave Cave River Valley Indiana |
Cave River Valley is situated in Indiana just south of Mitchell Indiana. The Department of Natural Resources just started granting access to previously closed caves on state property. We were able to get permission to visit these caves and bring out some garbage that was washed in from previous watershed. We took our time for once to get to cave river valleys caves which was nice as I'm usually maximizing every potential minute on a caving trip. The first cave we went to visit was endless cave. This cave is just over a mile in length and great for a beginner trip.
Endless Cave Cave River Valley Indiana |
The entrance to this cave was large for Indiana standards and had a perennial flow of water in the form of a stream coming out of the cave.
Endless Cave Cave River Valley Indiana |
The gate was unlocked as we past a karst window after the entrance which illuminated the first 100 ft of the cave itself.
Karst Window in Endless Cave Indiana |
We continued to walk upstream meandering around the stream bends and traversing into side passages.
ENDLESS CAVE INDIANA |
We continue on over large breakdown boulders and get to a section where we had to duck walk. Some of the group stopped and started to turn around and a few of us continued to push forward through the water and stones to the walking passage. Crinoid fossils were spotted along with other shell like unidentified fossils, some of these were nice specimens embedded into the rock.
Horn Corals Endless Cave Cave River Valley Indiana |
We continue to walk and traverse over boulders passing the formation room and eventually coming to an army crawl in water passage with stone notating the en of the cave. Ahead of me at this point the cave was less than a foot in height.
We turn back to observe the formation room and eventually exit the cave. This cave was pretty easy and straightforward yet it was still nice to see this walking cave. We head over to the other side of the spur, have lunch and head over to River Cave.
Endless Cave Cave River Valley Indiana |
3 comments
Nice job of posting about CRV and Endless. It has a beautiful main valley indeed, no wonder you wanted to tarry a bit. I've heard that River Cave has a waterfall and rapids inside it. Michele Dutcher
ReplyDeleteThank you, yes it is a nice area both inside and outside.
ReplyDeleteWent through Endless Cave about 3 times as a high school student in the early 1960s. Glad to see CRV is now part of a state nature preserve.
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