In March of 2007 a few friends and I went on an adventure. This is part one of three from the trip which took us to the depths of the earth and to some of the highest reaches of the mountain tops.
Part 1 Spring Creek Cave aka Spring Canyon Cave
Located on the walls of the Stratobowl near rockerville on Hwy 16.
Click here for a satellite image
Perched on the edge of a cliff in the Stratobowl, this cave is formed in the
Paha Sapa Limestone.
Here the cave has collapsed. This can be common in this the middle section of
the formation were the limestone is blocky and fragile. That makes this cave especially dangerous. 3 years ago when I last ventured here this is were I entered the cave.
The rocks at the surface exhibit beautiful boxwork and dogtooth spar crystal
formations.
This is were we enter the cave. Located near the bottom of the upper part of
the formation, it is common in this unit of the limestone for passageways to
have low ceilings with wide rooms. This generality held true here with the passageway being an average of 2 feet high by 12 feet wide.
Pauly! About 25 feet into the cave.
This is the typical low ceiling with wide room passageway. The entire cave was
a belly crawl.
Fracturing plains in the limestone.
The long thin passageway leads to this 12 foot drop. No way I would fit through
there. That and it leads to the area that colapsed.
Turning around....
....is not an option it is just way to tight. You have to back out.
Yes those are fresh pine needles 30 feet into the cave. Brought in by
porcupines. Pulling the porcupine quills out of ourselves was not fun.
You can see Pauly in the back. A good example of how thin the passageway is. Remember the whole cave is this way.
Leaving the cave you can see the green mold growing near the entrance
Jamie working her way out of the cave.
I was small, it was dirty, but it was fun!
Stay tuned for part 2 of our adventure as we hike down teepee gultch for lunch.
3 comments:
Mike,
Good job on the cave find! It looks like a tight little bugger,but aren't all Black Hills caves tight?
There are lots of caves in that area,so if you go back,keep an eye out for new ones!
Carter
Is this cave on public land? Is it worth visiting? Is it to dangerous to continue on, or just too small?
black hills has some of the largest caves.. 2nd and 4th largest in the world..
and while they have very large passages this cave is extremly tight and small. there is no more cave beyond the few hunderad feet we explored however it is posable that some more tunnels could be excavated
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