Randy Paylor in the formation room in Snake Canyon cave, Nevada. |
After Goshute cave we headed to Ely for some food and than headed out to the range where Snake Canyon cave is located.
James, April and Tim Gocha hanging out as the sun goes down near Snake Canyon Cave, Nevada. PHOTO BY: JUSTIN BAILEY |
Snake Canyon is more remote than Goshute and the roads were a bit rough for the cars to gain access to the trailhead so we camped along the way up the road.
Camping in the desert near Snake Canyon Cave, Nevada. PHOTO BY: JUSTIN BAILEY |
The following day we got to the trailhead and we also met up with Doug from the forest service. Doug was fantastic and helpful with knowledge about this cave.
James in the formation room in Snake Canyon cave, Nevada. |
Snake Canyon cave is at an elevation of around 9000ft. and took over an hour to hike up to the entrance. The entrance was
a a small crawl into a room that opened up into a series of faulted passages that have appeared to have moved over time.
Randy with the full spectrum of the flow stone drapery in Snake Canyon Cave, Nevada. |
The rooms were a series of wet and muddy breakdown piles with a few formations along the way.
Tim Gocha checking out a passages with bones in Snake Canyon Cave, Nevada. PHOTO BY: JUSTIN BAILEY |
We made it to the back of the cave where there was a 15ft climb that had a few penalty points for falling so we secured a hand line for safety.
Snake Canyon cave. |
Once we climbed into the final room we noticed the beautiful formations and the impressive flowstone drapery on the wall.
Formation room with randy in Snake Canyon cave, Nevada. |
This flowstone must have been around 25-35ft high and around 15-20 in length.
Formation room with Randy in Snake Canyon cave, Nevada. |
beautiful Nevada hills. |
The cave was around 1000ft in length so it was a bit shorter than Goshute cave but it was very interesting and different from a lot of other caves in the area.
Randy coming out of the entrance of Snake Canyon cave, Nevada. |
Tim and Doug headed down into a side passage and found some bones that they are going to discuss more about with each other.
Just outside of Snake canyon Cave, Nevada. |
What a fantastic weekend and I am glad everyone got a chance to get out and go caving. I hope that the momentum continues to inspire more people to get outside so they can get inside these beautiful caves.
Tim Gocha stretching out at the entrance of Snake Canyon Cave, Nevada. |