ADAM HAYDOCK

Ichiban Cave or Ricks Spring

Locals used ricks spring to collect fresh water by the gallon which was later dye traced and found to be watershed from Logan river, Tony Grove Lake, and other unknown caves in the area. There are other springs in the area that also release large amounts of water including Wood Camp Hollow, which has been dye traced from Main Drain Cave, Benchmark Springs, Dewitt Spring, and the 1,400 ft. gated cave system properly named Logan Cave.  

Rick's Spring Resurgence, Utah

Ricks Spring is made up of Dolomite and has developed from cracks in the Limestone from weak points where the water has dissolved and worked it way through the system.  Some of the passage appear to be pheratic in nature but the dry portion of the cave appear to be solutional. 

Preparing for a dive in Rick's Spring, Utah

Ricks Spring has been a point of interest for locals, tourists and Cave Divers for some time now due to the interesting cavern like alcove and the boil of water that re surges from the ground.   Richard Lamb, Wendell Nope, and a team of Cave Divers have been mapping this system for over 7 years now and local certified cave divers come to the spring to enjoy a nice clear water dive.  

It is my understanding that the cave has been mapped for up to 2300 ft. of underwater and dry passage. The dry portion contains several side passages and cascading waterfalls.  The largest dry room in the cave has been mapped at around 260ft long, 40 to 50ft wide, and 50 to 70ft high!  With all of this water and large passage, I feel Rick's Spring has a lot more going on than what has been discovered so far. 

Richard Lamb, Adam Haydock, and Michael Thornton with a underwater camera, exiting Ricks Spring, Utah PHOTO BY: Michael Thornton

Richard Lamb, Michael Thornton, and Adam Haydock prepared for a dive in the ideal conditions Rick's Spring can offer, 50-60ft of viz, great sun light, "low" recharge, and a balmy 37 degree water temperature.  Richard set the primary line and we found that the permanent line was still in tact which was nice to see and gave us one less task to tackle. The deepest point in the cave is at around 65ft. in a meandering slopping hill like profile.  Surprisingly, I had a lot of gear issues from free flows to two leaky hoses which ended my dive early when I penetrated the cave upto around 500ft. I also had some challenges getting into the cave itself with the LP 108's as I no mounted them and pushed them through the entrance. The cave meandered up and down with some strikes in the strata and a break point where Logan river penetrated the cave and resurges back out the exit of the system. The water was a constant 38 degrees but really good viz with some silt percolation from the ceiling. There is so much more to survey and explore in this cave so I am looking forward to coming back very soon. The 2300 ft of both wet and dry passage has some water falls and continuing submerged passage that appears to keep going and my provide significant cave for this system.

Video of Ricks Springs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4dDyPVBd7c

 Pinnacle Cave is a south Nevada Solutional fissure that has a 60ft free hanging drop with another 50-60ft of sloping stair step descent before reaching to the bottom.  This cave is surrounded by limestone mountains and begs me to wonder if there are more systems in the area than just this cave.

 Pinnacle Cave is surrounded by private property and other known mine claims which lends me to believe that this cave was spared from the scars that other mines leave after the abuse a claim can put through a cave.

 Once you reach the bottom of the system, you go through a couple of squeezes that must be approached feet first to avoid getting stuck, unlike some other videos and photos I have seen online. Once you get through the restrictions, you come to a formation room and continuing passage that apparently extended for over a 1000ft.

 I have seen a map made in 1972 that reports the survey to be 980ft in length but I have also read that the cave can go for over a few thousand feet, we did not get to see the cave in its entirety, but Laura and I got to enjoy a piece of the cave and its balmy 65 degree temps which was quite the change from the 30's and 40's we were finding in the Utah caves.

 There are two sets of bolts where people can rig from and the rock itself is quite solid but it will be beneficial to pad the rock were the rope lays to avoid rock abrasion and potentially creating a core shot in your rope or worse.

 we enjoyed a good few hours in the cave and look forward to coming back in the near future to practice a bit in the entrance and to explore the cave a bit more to see where the system extends out into. I also want to do some ridge walking to see if there are any other caves in the area.

 Pinnacle cave is near the Las Vegas area as I have found online, so this also has caused some concern with people visiting this cave without the proper training and equipment. Caving is different than canyoneering and climbing, so I highly recommend obtaining the proper gear and training before entering this cave.

 A rescue in this cave could be a cumbersome activity due to the restrictions that would need to be dug out or otherwise "influenced", consequently causing considerable damage to the cave and requiring a lot of personal.  Please practice safe caving practices and use the proper gear and techniques when visiting this cave.  

  For more information on visiting caves or safe caving practices, visit caves.org or join your local grotto.  They will be more than happy to help you and you will not only have a better experience, but you will also be able to visit multiple caves in the region.

To learn more about safe caving activities, caving in Nevada, or to learn how you can get involved and visit caves like these, please reach out to your local caving grotto, The Southern Nevada Grotto.  If you have any questions or you need help with reaching out to the right caving organization, please reach out to me directly.

 After Boltergeist canyon, we headed over to Yankie Doodle to make a quick run with this toute before heading back to the campground.

 Yankie Doodle is a best of the canyons in this area IMO, and is rated at a 3AII but there is a semi keeper depending on water levels and some semi challenging down climbs that might take more than a thought to negotiate.

 The first drop is around 30ft into the head of the canyon which takes you to a 70 ft drop. This is the best drop in the whole canyon and is actually pretty nice with the fluted walls and interesting sandstone color.

 Once we were down we continued down some small down climbs to a 20ft down climb with the option to rap, so we decided to just rap down this piece to make things easier.

 We encountered a few more raps while we traversed through some very interesting narrow fluted canyon sections until we got to the first water obstacle.

 It wasn't much of an obstacle at all actually, but it is worth noting that you will get wet up to your knees at least.

 Continuing on, we enjoyed the narrow slots and the canyon started to widen a bit.

 Once we got to the exit of Yankie Doodle, we started our climb out of the sloped sandstone wall and continued up the wash to the top which took us to the road and back to the car.

 This is a great canyon if you get blasted out of Zion due to rain or if you just want a casual day in the canyons around the Zion area. This is also heavily travelled and tour guides bring people here quite often so be prepared to not be the only group here.

 Ash Meadows is a unique and beautiful wildlife preserve that has been around for over one hundred years protecting native (endemic) species of life, some of which can only be found in this regional area.  The Wildlife refuge was established to protect the watershed that recharges out from a subterranean aquifer.  Early settlers have previously drained some of these natural springs that consequently, pushed a species of pupfish into extension.   

 Today, the water rights are regulated that allow for many species of pupfish and algae to survive in the preserve and other locations around Death Valley National Park. The pupfish are quite the interesting species, as they are able to survive in water salinity levels that would otherwise kill other fish and can withstand water temps of around 116 degree.   

We went to visit some of the springs in the area as this is where the water recharged out of the ground from the Aquifer and the connection between Devil's Hole and the Aquifer.  

 We went to visit Crystal Spring which looked the deepest and the most interesting with the clear blue water and a good sized boil re surging from the ground but it did not look dive worthy as there appeared to be a bit of a sand boil and the impact that a dive could have on the pupfish is not worth the effort.

 We went to visit Tubbs Spring, which looked a bit like a static pond of water, and a local spring near the area which appeared to have small sand boils.  From what I understand, there are many springs in the area and the water from the aquifer appears to be pushing through this region creating these springs but I wonder if there are dry dormant springs or other systems in the surrounding mountains.

Cascade Falls Cave is a horizontal cave in the Dixie National forest, Utah.  The cave is around 2000ft in length and is comprised of mainly walking passage. The cave does not appear to be limestone in nature but does sit on a contact layer that has signs of scalloping due to swift water movement.

Cascade Cave, Utah

Access to this cave is straightforward as there is a walking trail that leads to a balcony to view the entrance of the cave.

When we were there the cave entrance did not have a waterfall and we only encountered pools of water in the cave.  Usually there is a flowing stream of water coming out of the entrance, hence the name.

We got into the cave and noticed a gauge meter where the water appears to be flowing from which is quite high in comparison to where we were standing.  It would have swept us out of the cave if the water was raging. 

The cave reminded us of a Midwest canyon like cave that was devoid of formations.  It does have walking passage and meandering passage that appeared to keep going.

The air quality changed a bit where we were in there so we did not go to the back of the cave but we stopped around half way in and started to head out.   The cave is known to have high levels of C02 due to the decaying matter from Navajo Lake, above the cave.  There are sinkholes that drain water from Navajo lake, into Cascade Falls Cave and when we went up to the lake itself, there was a large portion of the lake that was bone dry.

Cascade Cave, Utah

We do NOT recommend entering this cave unless you are a experienced caver and have the proper training and equipment to enter caves.

This cave can and will flash flood so if you are in this cave when it flood, you can find yourself in big trouble. Furthermore, there are high C02 readings in this cave and that can cause injury or death if you are not prepared for the high levels of C02.   If you are interested in caving, please reach out to your local caving organization so they can prepare you for caving activities.

Polygamy's cave appears to be one of the more popular cave's in Tony Grove with its foot traffic and groups of people we found not only congregating at the entrance, but inside the cave at a distance past the light zone at a point where we would think people would have enough sense to wear helmets. 

Unfortunately, we saw a lot of people in the cave passing through and sitting around without helmets and without the right equipment.  .

This made us worry a bit about the future and if something were to happen, would they impose regulations or sanctions on future visitors because of an accident(s), that might otherwise be easy to avoid by taking proper precautions. Lets all do our part to ensure we protect ourselves by not only being safe, but ensure that we preserve the caves for future generations to appreciate and enjoy.

I entered the cave and went down its slopping passage and under some restrictions which took us into a dome room. We spotted a section where we would work our way down a small hole to the first drop, a 50 footer with a couple bolt stations to choose from.

Continuing past this section the cave keep going for a bit and restricts to a point where there is a 175 footer called first wife pit. Continuing down that drop there are another drop called the second wife pit which will take you down to the bottom of the cave at a depth of around 400ft.

There is another pit if you keep going past the first wife pit, which is cleverly called the third wife pit.  This drop is around 120ft into a terminal room.  

 I found this cave to be interesting because of the red sandstone layers, combined with some quartzite, and dolomitic limestone that colored some of the rooms with a mosaic array of design.

quickly running out of time from the dive in ricks spring, so we headed back out and made it back to the car before nightfall. There are some other interesting caves in the area so we are looking forward to checking those out in the near future!