Utah has a vast amount of geology in one state with so much variation within just a few hundred miles that it can cover a lifetimes worth of exploration and research when understanding the geological formations that have developed the mountains, canyoneering, mine exploration, and cave exploration. Utah is home to hundreds of cave systems which are in various places in the Wasatch Front and in the north Uinta Mountain range and Ashley National Forest. Some are geothermal features must most of them are solutional limestone pockets.

There are some systems that reside close to major cities that are kept a bit more quiet than I expected due to the potential hazards and for conservation purposes. Mine shafts are also protected in this fashion that allows the preservation of these historical markers to be kept secret so people don't destroy them or make a profit off of them.

One particular cave in the Wasatch from use to be one of the deepest systems in the united states but was passed up by other systems out east.

This particular cave is gated and locked so we were able to get permission to enter the cave and rappel down to the bottom which consisted of a muli-drop 45 degree face tiered in multiple stages.

The cave itself looked like a crack in the mountain, which is but has a canyon like feature carved out by water with a seepage sump at the bottom of the system.

The strata has some interesting features as it was layered in such a way that allows striping of the walls giving this cave the personality unique to this region without any formations.

there are not too many other systems in the area so this cave is an anomaly in itself and at around 1150ft deep, it is a good Nordic route to take to prepare for other cave systems.

I enjoyed visiting this cave and I am looking forward to coming back in the future to see the sump and prepare for some other systems like main drain.

The hike to the cave was not too bad for Utah standards but it was in snow and we were at around 7000ft of elevation so it can be a bit of a huffer if you are hauling ropes up to the entrance.

The entrance had an extra foot of snow that needed to be moved so we could enter the cave

I am also looking forward to visiting more Utah and Nevada cave systems as they don't seem to be long but what they lack in length they make up for in depth especially the ones in the tony grove area where you can find mulit pitch routes 200-300 plus feet in length for a total length of over 1200ft deep, and sheer vertical requiring warm clothing and alpine techniques.