Tony's Grave - 420' deep

This new cave discovery in northern Utah could prove to be Utah's 7th deepest cave at an estimated depth of 420 feet! This was recently discovered and explored by Daniel and Chris Erickson. Zeke and Tony Post have helped with the survey which is still ongoing. The following pictures and description come from Daniel and Zeke about this great discovery!


"The first 40' are very tight and scraped us to pieces. If you go in it, there is a sizable loose rock in that entrance passage, which if it fell in could partially block the passage. It is wedged in place with a stick, so don't step on the stick or rock as you slither down in.

The cave is almost all vertical with little horizontal passage. It follows the same fault all the way down. About 2/3s of the way the fault shifts directions slightly. We didn't find many formations. We found a couple of columns and a little flowstone. There is not too much water in it. Overall, the rocks are rough and sometimes sharp. We were very careful choosing our rope paths and only had to rebelay a couple of times.

About 175' down there is a room that we dug and smashed through. There was an empty bag of chips there. Either someone threw it down the hole and it worked its way there, or someone chased the cave that far before us and left their litter. Accordingly, the first part of the cave may have been known at least to someone. The latter part, obviously, is new.
The digging only took us around an hour
and with the help from a badger rib bone. It was kind of crazy because we really had to just dig out a few large rocks and scrape around with the bone and the floor fell out from beneath the area we were digging.
Once we saw the floor start to become unstable, two of us stepped back, and one got on rope, which was kind of wise as the floor around the new pit fell out. The opening was only around 2'x4', but it still seemed like a lot of rock fell. We poked our head into the new hole to look underneath and see that the rock was stable, which it was, and so Chris lead into the new pit while I ascended up 150' where we left an additional rope, which we ended up using towards the bottom.

I'm not too hopeful on finding further passage at the bottom that we found. As I stood in the bottom hole I thought I could feel a little breeze, but I can't be sure. It seemed to come around a fault crack. I tried moving rocks around on the floor with my feet, but there was quite a bit of sediment."

Great find guys!!! We look forward to seeing the official survey results!
 

KK Cave - 50' deep, 150' long

While looking for KK cave we stumbled upon what we thought was it, but upon getting down inside we found it to be filled in with breakdown. Thinking that KK Cave was no longer accessible and had recently caved in we decided to look around for a bit then head down. After hiking around the ledges above this cave we decided to go get our packs and head down. About 40 ft. away from the cave entrance shown above, Shane discovered another opening....

The real KK Cave.


The entrance is tight and a little difficult to maneuver.


Shane just inside where the cave goes vertical.

Looking up at Spencer preparing to descend the 35' ft. vertical crevice.



At the bottom of the vert. the cave follows a crevice down to this large breakdown room.

Looking back to where the crevice opens up to the breakdown room.

At the bottom of breakdown room there is a hole that leads to another 30' feet of manuevering in and out of more breakdown until it gets too tight to continue.

Popcorn is the only formation you will see in this cave.

A well worn groove over the edge shows that this cave has received a considerable amount of traffic over the years.

Definately awkward ascending over this tight little ledge.
 

Moqui Cave(s)


Moqui Cave is a "tourist trap" on Highway 89 just outside of Kanab, Utah. They charge a $5.00 entrance fee just inside the front door. There is a nice gift shop inside as well as a large display of flourescent minerals and historic artifacts. The tour guides are the owners of the property who provide a nice short history of the cave and are very pleasant to talk to. It's quite a large cave for being basically a sandstone grotto. As you continue toward Kanab you can see several other smaller caves in the side of the cliffs. Here is the link to their web site: http://www.moquicave.com/index.html


The cave was purchased by the current owners and made into a tavern and a dance hall many years ago.


This is the large dance hall room where the flourescent mineral display is located.



Just outside of Kanab, UT there's a bunch of cool sand caves. None of them are true caves, in the sense that you can get far enough back to not need a light. But they're still a fun and interesting place to visit. If you look all around the area, there are many of these 'caves', but please respect private property signs.






 

Stink Hole

While this stinky little hole is not a true cave as it is not long enough nor obtain complete blackness, it is a natural opening and does have some possibilities of continuing further. It is roughly 20' long and ends in a dirt floor. With some excavation there could be some possiblities of it continueing down and becomeing a "true cave".

 

North Fork Cave - 150' long



North Fork Cave is about 150' long and about 40 ft. tall at the entrance. This cave would have been formed as part of an ancient underground water system. When the canyon eroded out it exposed a portion of this system.
 

Other States

Idaho

Montana

Nevada

Utah

Wyoming

West Virginia

If you would like to become a moderator or help to add caves to the other states cave blogs, simply send an email with some basic information about yourself and your caving experiences in that state to utahexplorer@gmail.com and we will consider you to be a moderator and help run that states cave blog. The list of states that are available are:


Alabama 

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia
 
Hawaii

Idaho

Iowa

Illinois

Indiana

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana 

Maine

Maryland 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi

Missouri

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire 

New Jersey

New Mexico 

New York

North Carolina 

Ohio

Oklahoma 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 

South Carolina 

South Dakota

Rhode Island 

Tennessee 

Texas

Vermont 

Virginia 

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin
 

Trail Hollow Caves

While exploring Trail Hollow we discovered these few pockets. The lower cave had recently been excavated to open up a 15 ft long hole. The upper holes we did not have the proper equipment to attempt that day, so those remain on the ever growing "To Do" list. With how porous these cliffs are there is a good possibility that one of these could turn out to be something substantial.
 

MH5


The opening of the mine that apparently broke into this small cave.

The mine tunnel is thru solid quarts rock. No wonder the miners started tunneling here.

Near the back of the drift was a wall of dirt. Evidently intentionally filled in to keep intruders out. After squeezing through the top of the fill, we saw that the drift quickly came to an end with only a small cave passage accessible from there. Why had the end of this mine tunnel been filled in to conceal a small cave passage? Is there a larger, more dangerous passage deeper under the loose rock? After squeezing thru into the open part of the mine tunnel we found a relatively new dust mask and a strange bottle of what appeared to be motor oil with a piece of mesh over the top to dispense the oil. What is this oil doing in a cave and what was it used for?

Looking out from our dig to the mouth of the mine tunnel.

This is another Mahogany Mtn. cave. Unfortunately there appears to have been a fairly recent cave in and the majority of the cave is now inaccessible. The climb into this passage was unnerving as it entailed climbing over what appeared to be fairly recent unstable breakdown.

Looking up into the only accessible room above the cave-in.






The airflow from the mine tunnel into the cave was significant which tells us that there is more cave volume with the air possible filtering thru the loose rock.
If anyone recognizes these pictures or was able to view the entire cave prior to the possible collapse, please contact me at utahcaver@ymail.com. I would love to know the true extents of the cave.
 

Logan Cave - 4,290 ft. long, 152 ft. deep

Logan Cave is the very large and visible cave on the North side of the road in Logan Canyon. The gate was installed after the cave was vandalized several years ago. It is also in place to protect an endangered bat species know as the Townsend's Big Eared Bat. The cave is a total surveyed length of 4,290 ft. and 152 ft. deep. Carved by water seeping along the cracks and crevices in the limestone, Logan Cave formed to be very narrow, tall and wet.






This sign is posted just below the cave entrance to warn visitors to keep their distance to avoid disturbing the bats.
 

Skull Cave

Skull Cave (also known as Dave and Nate Cave) was discovered by a couple of young kids, apparently named Dave and Nate. They visited Timpanogos Cave in 1988, and while doing so, mentioned to the NPS staff that they had discovered their own private cave. They pointed across the canyon to show the approximate location, gave a brief description of the cave, and then went home (leaving no contact or other information). The NPS staff mentioned this to Dave Herron, pointed out the approximate location, and after searching Dave re-located this small and partially decorated cave.


A picture of the flat stone covering the entry.
Michael headed in.


Spee admiring some of the formations.
The entrance tunnel on the right, Spee and his headlamp on the left.


Spee and the largest formations in the cave.

Michael pointing out the soda straws.


Fun with lights.

Michael just inside the entrance. Spee back in the large room.


The main feature of the cave is this large stalagmite.



These beehive stalagmites are interesting features as well.

Michael Coles exiting the cave.