ADAM HAYDOCK

Capital reef is a National Park that might not get as much attention as Bryce or Zion due to its location being in the middle part of Utah but that is no excuse for its absolutely stunning scenery and geological history.

There are some amazing canyoneering routes to be tackled including the famous Poe Canyon and Pandoras Box Canyon. There are some excellent non technical hikes that include our history from when settlers moved into and through Utah and hikes into the desert and canyons that have beautifully varnished walls and a more fiery color with shades of yellow to go with the red and orange.

One of the amazing aspects that stand out for capital reef is that there is so much diversification in the geology that you will find all kinds of amazing colors and naturally sculpted rock faces throughout the National Park.

One aspect that I noticed is how there are more yellow fiery looking varnished walls at Capital Reef than places like Zion, Arches, and canyonlands.  There are so many reasons to visit Capital Reef but I want to focus on one, more remote section of the Park which is to the north on a 56 mile dirt road which takes the passengers to Cathedral Valley.  

  I set out on the 56 mile dirt road starting from mile marker 90, which takes you right to a dirt road and to the crux of the off road excursion, the river ford!

The river was a bit high and according to the ranger station, 14 inches was what we had to cross in order to get to the other side.  Furthermore there was some sand that people had to go over once I got across so I backed up the Subaru Outback and stayed right where it was a bit shallower, than made the crossing over the sand and onto the road! nice. it was pretty straight forward and the water was pretty deep.  I do not recommend a sedan to cross where I crossed but the Subaru Outback had no issues.

Once we got over we went around some washes and semi bumpy graded road which had some rocks embedded into the road which was not too much of a hassle to get around. Eventually I cane to a basin and the road was smoother to go a bit faster to cover the 26 miles I had to make to get to the valley overlook.

Continuing on and the road went up a bentonite mound that reminded me of a mossy looking Neapolitan ice cream glob, awesome!!!

Stopping to take some photos for a moment and continued on down the backcountry dirt road viewing the remains of a seabeds floor while observing the cattle getting closer and closer to the road. I made a turn around a corner and there was a heard of cattle walking the road and drinking out of the left over water from the snowmelt. There was other water in the area but this "road water" must have been the best kind around because they would not move for nothing.

Now we did not want to cause too much of a panic for the cattle and I also did not want to get into the sloggy sand piles riveted with waterholes on this portion of the road so I had to make sure that if I was going to proceed, I was not going to stop. I eventually proceed ahead, honking my horn while the cattle thankfully decided to get out of my way and I was able to continue down the road to the final stretch of the first half of this loop trail.

Making it up to the top of the overlook rim, the road becomes a bit more bumpy with large rocks, some of them sharp which can cause a 1000 dollar tow so be careful going through this area.

I was able to grab a bunch of photos before the sun went down which casted a beautiful hue the accentuated the color of the rock with brilliant orange monoliths darting out of the basin like sharp miniature mountains.  It was beautiful and a unique place that yet again Utah has to offer.

Once the sun set over the ridge the road continued on to another interesting geological feature tucked away under a monolith in a side trail, a gypsum sinkhole!!

This sinkhole was a 200ft sinkhole that ended with no passage to be seen. The solution in the gypsum must have evaporated creating a emptied out cavity thus the collapse of the rock above the cavity to fall and implode on itself creating this sinkhole.  I decided not to rap with due to the instability of the rock but it was really interesting to see.

The Sun set and the stars sparked the night sky with a ear ringing sound of silence which was a and pristine feel knowing that at one time the place I camped was the place that was at the bottom of an ocean at one time.

The following day, I kept driving down the road to visit the temples of the sun and moon as well as a extremely interesting feature called the glass mountain.  This mountain is a mound made of Selenite crystals which were the biggest selenite crystals I have ever seen.

Selenite hill looking at cathedral valley, utah

 Furthermore, I have seen some selenite's in caves out east but not to the extent and size that these crystals were. I am absolutely amazed to see just how a mound of selenite crystal is just placed here right near the temple of the sun.  Maybe Aliens dropped of some of the crystals due to a heavy spaceship? 

Entrada sandstone that is topped of with a cream colored deposit forming the Curtis Formation. A more greener iron potassium silicate composite in the Curtis is more abundant in the north here in the valley from the sea depositing the materials the works of wind and water eroding the deposits away creating what we se today as Cathedral Valley.

This loop trail was really interesting and pretty easy to drive as long as you have a 2 wheel high clearance car.  So far this is the most interesting scenic drives we have done in Utah and with the remoteness of the overlook and the desert along with the natural eroded monolith features, crystals, and other geological features, this place is incredible both day and night.

Waking up and leaving at around 4am to get into Idaho reminded me of going to Indiana for the weekend to go caving from Chicago but instead of visiting some limestone caves, I  headed to visit the second largest lava tube cave on the continental United States, Gypsum Cave. 

Lava Tube caves are a bit different in the way they are formed where lava flows cool and subsurface lava continues to flow until the flow of lava decreases leaving a hardened chamber tube that can extend for miles in some situations.

What is more interesting is that Dale Green, from Utah, brought ground penetrating radar with him on a survey and found that there were other tubes of similar length that were paralleling Gypsum Cave.

Gypsum Cave is around 2.6 miles in length which use to be the longest lava tube cave until a Lava Tube cave in Washington beat it out at 2.7 miles.

If there is a way to break into this parallel tube than that would make this tube one longest in the world.

Gypsum cave is unique in that it gypsum evaporating through veins and cracks in the cave that tarnish the walls white and create a mosaic of color in some of the sections of the cave.  The cave itself is very dry and dusty so it can help to bring a mask in some of the sections of the cave.

We met up with Steve Frye and some of the cavers from the Silver Sage Grotto in Idaho to visit these Lava Tube caves and what a treat it was to see this cave!

Officially we were in the cave to conduct a bat count and to collect specimens for study.  

We were able to obtain the key and visit this cave through the DNR and the Silver Sage Grotto is apart of the development and conservation efforts that protect these caves from WNS and vandals that might want to break into the lava tubes.

We enter this cave and go through a crawl which eventually opens up into walking passage.  over 90 percent of the cave is walking passage with ceiling reaching 20-25ft at times.

we continued to walk through this passage snapping some photos and understanding a bit more about the caves nature and how the Silver Sage Grotto protects these caves.

Stacy and Jeremy discussed with me how they have helped with gating the entrances to some caves and how the Grotto continues to maintain a good relationship with the DNR in order to protect the states caves from WNS and other intruders.  It was good to hear about the working relationship between the Grotto and the DNR.

We went onto a side passage and moved over to the chocolate room which required some stoop walking and crawling but took us to a room with some interesting folded walls and cracked floors that resembled chocolate on the floor.  

we continued on and worked our way back into the main conduit and continued until we got the end of the cave. We passed some interesting sections of cave and at times the floor was covered in a cream colored volcanic ash which was a couple inches high at time.

This cave was really interesting and it was a pleasure to go with a dedicated group of cavers from the Silver Sage Grotto.  We are looking forward to coming back in the near future and visiting a few more of the hundreds of documented lava tube caves in the region.

Sunday we met up with Bonny and Andy Armstrong around 1pm to head out into one of our favorite places in Utah, the Wasatch and Unita Mountains. This time we set out for Pine Pole Pit and Grave Cave.

We headed up and found our way to Pine Pole Pit which is around a 30ft drop into a sloping passage leading to a 50x20ft room covered in moon milk and some evidence of hypogenic quality.

Pine Pole pit is a great example of limestone solutional karst which might very well be a fusion with hydrothermal properties as we observed crystal formations and marbled sandstone like strata within the walls of the cave.

At the start of the drop, Andy rigged the main line, a traverse line, and a redirect like all with one rope using fat rabbit bowline knots which was really interesting to see.

I find it equally beautiful at the top as I do at the bottom but we were again surrounded by orange Indian brush, white columbine, purple pensteme, and blue bell flowers around us. Awesome!!!!

We de rigged and headed over to Grave cave

I do not recommend using the tree that is in there now as it is quite the skinny dead tree and will break on you if you try to climb down in it.

This is one of my favorite caves in the area and I would not mind coming back to this one if there was a lot of time to do so.

Please keep this cave pristine and respect the land around it.

The charm of the high Utah mountains have never let up on amazement for us, especially when it comes to the alpine karst regions that hold a tight belt around the peaks.  One cave in particular called Boat Box Cave, is a vertical drop with two pitches and a very unique feature at the bottom of the pit.  Elevation at the entrance of this cave sits at around 9400ft. which makes this cave one of the highest in Utah.

The entrance to the cave has a 35ft. vertical entrance with a log lodges in at an angle to the drop.  There is a 15ft sloping passage at a 45degree angle that takes you to another 30ft drop into water, lots of water!!!!  There was some moon milk on the walls but there was mainly limestone that harnessed the foundation to this system. I dropped down  to the second pitch where I got ready for a rap into water that I assumed was going to be in the 30s.

I threw some rocks down the pit and I could hear deep splashes with a low tone suggesting that the water rap will be deep. I got on rope and rigged some rope pads for the drop and made my descent to a small ledge where I could see the water itself. 

At first I was thinking that this would be a small lake but it appeared to me that this is now a fissure looking water feature rather than a circular shaped water feature that I had in mind. What was even more interesting is that the water was surprisingly clear with a measured depth and viz of at least 25ft from the left over rope that I used for the descent. The water was static in nature but it was deep, really deep. 

I disconnected from the rope and dropped into the water wearing shorts and a horse collar life vest that I realized looked like I just got done eating at all you can eat crab buffet.

The water was cold enough to make my ears disoriented which tells me that the water must have been in the low 40s or upper 30s. 

I took a few quick free dives to around a depth of 10ft and shined my 1000 lumen light into the blue with no sign of the bottom and a under cut looking feature in the submerged wall. 

I am confused as to why all of the other caves relieve the water from their depths in this region, but this cave.   there must be around 15ft of snow that gets dumped on this region, so there is significant water flow, but this particular cave holds water. 

A dive has been planned in the near future which will render more answers as to why this cave has so much water, could there be more dry passage behind a duck under, could it be a off set sinkhole to a underwater system, or could it be just a unusual "bowl" that seeps water at a rate that the snow melt recharges the cave after the snow dissipates?

 We headed up to the Anniversary Narrows and we were greeted with at least 10 no tresspassing signs and gates with a map showing us what we can not do, which is enter the narrows from the south which included an alternate route that was shut down recently as well. It appears that people can enter the narrows through the ridge of fire down the wash but unfortunately it will be suite the hike and take a lot of time in order to reach a set of narrows that are around 500ft in length.

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