Pole Creek Cave

Pole Creek Cave is a large horizontal cave that is great for beginners to explore. It is only accessible in the fall since the Pole Creek river comes out of the entrance at high flow levels. The dry portion of the cave is roughly 900' long and ends at a pool of water that remains year round. The pool is diveable and is roughly 200' long and then continues 500' in another dry portion of the cave until another pool is encountered. Currently Underwater Dynamics is exploring the second pool in hopes of pushing it further. The end goal is to connect the entrance with the upper sink that is 1.5 miles away.

When I visited the cave in the spring (see image below) a heavy flow of water was coming from the entry. Warning! No attempt should be made to enter this cave when water is flowing out of the entry!

The Pole Creek Sink (see image below) located about 1.5 miles upstream from the cave entrance is where the river disappears into the cave system. With the high runoff this spring (2011) the sink filled up to where you could barely see the top of the right mine entrance.

The two large black holes in the photo are an attempt by Gale Rhoades to open an old Spanish mine he located in the sink. You can read more about the venture here.

Cameron Coles standing in front of the sink.