ADAM HAYDOCK

After Thanksgiving I headed out to fox mountain to check out a few caves in the area and get my camera ready for Surprise pit the following day.

I headed over to Rustys cave which was a 30ft drop into a small walking cave system that had some nice formation rooms and flowstone features.

I took my time setting up some different shots playing around with lighting and setting on the camera to make sure I could get some decent shots for tomorrow.

Rustys cave is a nice small easy system and worth the visit as the formations are beautiful and the route of the cave is straightforward.

After Rustys Cave I headed over to Cemetary Pit which is a 154ft drop and over two miles of cave passage with waterfalls big rooms canyons and some mazy like passage.

I rigged to three bolts and descended the ledged drop to the bottom where I proceeded to take a quick look through the passage before heading back up and off the mountain. The cave was pretty interesting but pretty typical passage that you would find in the area. It is a must visit place and I enjoyed my time on fox Mountain .

After leaving Fox Mountain I headed over to Howards Waterfall Cave to check out this place before heading back to Phils place to prepare for Surprise Pit. The cave appears to be pretty heavly travelled and I ran into a family where a father that is a caver was bringing his family through the cave for a Friday trip.

It was quite a different atmosphere as the kids were yelling and running down the cave as we had to crawl and stoop walk which was rather cute...only for about 10 minutes, which at that time, got annoying.

I ended up staying behind to snap a few photos and headed out of the cave by myself and headed back to Raccoon Mountain for tomorrows trip into Surprise Pit.

FLICKR: https://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/albums/72157661921723525

After Orcestwell Spring, we made it over to Champion Spring which was quite the drive but worth the drive as we got to a beautiful resurgence and a surprisingly beautiful dive site.

We walk to the entrance and it is a breakdown pile with another breakdown pile in the cave that water resurges from.  The entry point into the cave was a bit low but it was very manageable once I was able to squeeze through and start the dive.

Josh Helped me bring the diving gear up to the waterline and I got into the water and proceeded to lay line in going underwater passage. he viz was around 15ft or more which was fantastic for Alabama!  I could see the walls as they were flutted and chert mods stuck out of the wall.  There were some blind crawfish that I would pass from time to time as I went deeper into the cave.

I found another line has already been layed so I tied off to that and proceeded to follow that until it ended which I tied off another reel and continued my push for around 500-600ft and turned for gas management procedures. The passage kept going with no end in site and I wonder if anyone has ever pushed this passage beyond where I found the line to stop.  I would love to return to this cave with larger tanks to continue the pursuit and see where all of this water is coming from.

The next day we headed over to check out some springs to dive which was a different change to my typical tag trips but it was a nice diversion as the Diving in TAG is a lot better than I thought it would be in clear conditions.

We made our first stop at Orcestwell Spring which is right near vast caverns.  It has been rumored that this cave connects to Vast Caverns but nobody has made the connection.  I suited up and reconed the dive site which turned out to be a series of duck under water passages that took me into this room that had a few feet of water.  The passage looked grim but there was a meander in the cut bank where I could get under a ledge and dive the sump yet it looked pretty sketchy and creepy, especially doing it solo.

Yes, the rule is to have a dive buddy but when it comes to zero viz, a few feet of clearance, and sump diving, there is not really anything anyone can do when you go into the sump.  Your sump dive buddy can attempt to find you but typically that could be a big risk for the dive buddy as we usually go in one at a time.

I decided to not dive at that moment and think about the operation before jumping into it. Josh practiced mapping the cave and I took some photos of the formations before we left for another dive site called champion springs.

After Diving in Champion Springs, I came back to Ocestwell spring and attempted the dive.  I pushed through the meandering low ceiling passage by basically army crawling underwater and it opened up enough for me to swim.  There were times when it meandered left and right and sections that got tight but I eventually popped out into a bell that I swam to the end. the passage continued underwater and I popped out once again into another bell.  The passage continued yet again until I popped out in a low crawling section that gradually got big enough to walk on my hands and knees.  I left my gear there and kept crawling until I got to a dome which reminded me of the last drop in Vast Caverns! I could not believe that I might have actually made it to the bottom of Vast Caverns but I was not 100 percent sure, so I left a line arrow with my last name and left the cave.  A trip into Vast Caverns needs to be made but I fear that any evidence that I have left might have been swept away in the recent floods. to be continued...

After making some life changes which equated to free up more time, I decided to head down to TAG for an undetermined amount of time to visit friends and go caving.  I loaded up the car with diving, caving, climbing, and camping equipment than headed down south 10 hours Steve Davis's house near South Pittsburg.  I made it to Steves house around 8pm and was greeted by Josh Schultz, Steve, Lee White, and Steve's affectionate pup.  We discussed our options that we had and what we were going to get involved with and decided to visit Dark Well. 

We ate breakfast and drove over to the Paint Rock area through the meandering roads which did not agree with our stomachs to much, especially mine. for some reason I was getting car sick which never happens and consequently felt like crap until we got to the parking lot of paint rock.

After a few mis orientations and backing up on roads, we made it to the parking lot and took a brief break before heading up the hill. The Hike was casual and typical TAG hiking till we reached the entrance of Dark Well

The Drop had a walk in cavern entrance which we rigged and re directed into the first pit which was around 100 ft with a few ledges to stop at along the way.  The drop was pretty straightforward multi drop material with a waterfall raining down on you as you rapped to the bottom of the drop.  The  Cave reminded me of Water Well.

We get to the next rig point and I set up a rebelay on a shady looking bolt that took us down another 50ft. to a third drop of around 10ft. the water was moving pretty good at this point and we quickly came to a forth drop that we threw the rope down in which took us to the bottom of the rope.

To our right were a few dome rooms that we traversed around and to our left was continuing passage that took us into a room with another 100ft pit and a large drop where the water was flowing over.

Josh went back to get the traverse line and I ended up throwing up twice, making sure it was in the water and flowing over the edge as my sickness and dizziness caught up to me...We continued on caving and I rigged a traverse line so we could walk around the pit into the large room in the back. Can't let a little vomit and dizziness stop the trip especially when we are this far back into it.

We popped into this main room and it was quite impressive to see as the break down pile was prob around 75 ft to the ceiling.  There were a few more drops ahead of us but we decided to turn around and exit the cave.

We worked our way out of the cave with no incident and de rigged in the sub freezing temps wet which took us into the night cold to the bone. We get to the car and leave for home only to find out that Josh had to go k to get his harness which he ended up finding in the field frozen to the ground!! great first day in TAG! 

The Unita Mountains are located in the North East portion of Utah and are home to a impressive concentration of thirteeners and some deep cave systems.

The day prior we were in the desert and now we are about 11,400 Ft. up in the Mountains with over a foot of snow on the ground.

The mountains were absolutely gorgeous and I was amazed to see how this all looked when we actually got to the Summit of one of them.

This particular mountain was more of a walk up that did not require any technical equipment which made for a great but huffy puffy walk for this low lander!

We could see for over 20-30 miles in either direction which was a range of mountains that extended as far as we could see.

I really enjoyed being up here at the top of the mountain and I am looking forward to returning to this area to summit more of these ranges and knock off some of the thirteeners in this region.

There are also some interesting cave systems in the regional area further north and to the east that I am looking forward to visiting in the near future.

 Also in the plans is to summit some major systems including the tetons, mt. baker, and rainier next year so this will be a good place to practice.

Unfortunately the Uinta's don't quite open back up until around April or may due to the massive amount of snow that they receive so we will have to wait on returning back until we are able to make an approach.

The San Rafael Swell is a 40 mile by 70 mile uplift of sandstone, shale, and limestone from the Paleocene era around 40-60 million years ago.  The lifted pocket of rock has been shaped into some interesting canyon features from wicked flash flooding which has made the canyons into what they are today.   The Swell is around three and a half hours south of Salt Lake City and about 80 miles from Moab, Utah.

Little Wild Horse Canyon is a nice non technical route that takes you into some of the best terrain in the Swell which also loops around from the back of the swell and down into and through Bell Canyon, which takes you back to the car.

Little Wild Horse Canyon. San Rafael Swell, Utah.

The Canyon is a casual walk up a wash until you get to a fork that can take you to little wild horse or bell canyons.

Little Wild Horse Canyon. San Rafael Swell, Utah.

Going right at the fork will take you to little Wild Horse and might be a bit easier to navigate around and down if you are looking for the most casual of hikes in the swell.

Little Wild Horse Canyon. San Rafael Swell, Utah.

The loop takes around 4 hours and the connecting road behind the swell is a bit longer than it may seem so keep following the road until you see an obvious canyon which is bell canyon.

Little Wild Horse Canyon. San Rafael Swell, Utah.

The canyon walls would open up and close up as you make your way up Little Wild Horse Canyon.  It is a beautiful canyon with some interesting dug out sand pockets there were abundant as you made your way up to the top of the canyon.

Little Wild Horse Canyon. San Rafael Swell, Utah.

The Canyon opened up into a large beautiful gorge which some interesting varnished walls and fabulous casual desert hiking which takes you right to the back of the swell and the connection road leading to Bell Canyon.


Little Wild Horse Canyon. San Rafael Swell, Utah.

Bell canyon was also very nice and straightforward in its direction back to the fork where Bell meets Little Wild Horse Canyon.

Bell Canyon, San Rafael Swell, Utah

The sun was setting and we eventually made It back to the car just as the sun set over the swell.

Little Wild Horse Canyon. San Rafael Swell, Utah.

I do not have much experience in the Swell as of now but from what I understand, the Little Wild Horse / Bell canyon loop trail is the best among a casual and scenic hike routes in the swell.

Bell Canyon, San Rafael Swell, Utah

 Bell Canyon is a bit shorter than Little Wild Horse so if you are very limited on time than I recommend tackling Bell canyon but it is a great loop to add to a half day trip in the Swell.

Bell Canyon, San Rafael Swell, Utah