Lost Josephine Cave

This is a natural cave that has been mined for several years. It is not very exciting unless you know which turn to take, and most who visit here never see the beautiful formations within. There are still active mining operations underway, and visits there are prohibited. We are currently working with the owners of the claim to survey the tunnels, as well as develop a management plan so that the cave can be visited when mining operations are inactive.
There are three entrances in this photo, with several others around the hill.

Every tunnel is wet and covered in red clay. Don't expect to get your clothes clean after exploring this one.

The only graffiti are some old charcoal dates and names.

This is just inside the main entrance.

There are several mined tunnels that shoot of in every direction. This lower one is typically filled with water until late in the year.

You can actually see the crystals forming in the bead of water.

Many places look like you have been swallowed and are in the belly of a beast.

Unfortunately there has been some damage throughout the cave. There are so many formations it is difficult to maneuver around them.

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Kane County

Bowers Lava Tube
Cascade Cave
Duck Creek Ice Cave
Johnson Canyon Caves
Mammoth Lava Tube
Moqui Caves

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Duchesne County

8' Pit
Foreman Cave
Honeycomb Cave
North Fork Cave
Pole Creek Cave
Peekaboo River Cave
Riverside Cave
Spanish Spar Cave
White Collar Cave
Wish Pit
Yellowstone Cave

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Cache County

Boomerang 
Extra Wifes Cave
GMZ Cave
Logan Cave
Main Drain
Polygamy
Polygamy's End
Ricks Spring Cave
Snowcone
Teacup Pit
Thundershower 
Tony's Grave 

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Yellowstone Cave

This small cave is really more closely related to a grotto, since it never achieves complete blackness and is not more than 50 ft. long. It really only goes back 15 ft. or so and is covered in guano and rat droppings and nests. This has to be one of the filthiest caves I have ever been into.

The entrance is an easy scramble to get inside.

Looking back downhill from inside.

Spencer in the guano covered cave.

Spencer looking at some guano covered quartz crystals.

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Riverside Cave

This cave is a very small but interesting one that parallels a large river. The water can be seen flowing into the cave not far upstream and again exiting through a submerged passage downstream from the entrance.

Since this cave is located at the base of a fairly large cliff, the best route down to it is through this hole in the bottom of a sink above the cliff face.  After descending the small sink and squeezing through the hole at the bottom, it spits you out at almost river level and leads you right to the cave entrance.

Shane crouching into the cave.

The arm leading downstream from the entrance was the most well defined and was well formed from rushing water during flood season.

The journey ended for us at a partially flooded passage only 20 or 30 feet in. From here we could see another 20 ft or so before the passage became completely submerged.

There are a few off-chutes, but not very promising.

The passage that lead upstream was dry and sandy, but dropped into water near the back.

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Cricket Cave

This cave can be seen from the valley at the right angle. The entrance is large but it quickly shrinks down to a tight cave with not much too explore. Near the top there is a dirt wall that separates the upper right tunnel from the main passage. If you get someone on each side you can hear each other through the wall.

Map courtesy of Rodney Horrocks.

The main entry.
The upper right passage is known as Upper Cricket Cave.

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Tabernacle Hill Lava Tubes

There are several of these large tubes which are mostly collapsed.


The big tube with skylights.


People camping inside one of the tubes.


Entrance to one of the Lava Tubes.


The landscape of Tabernacle Hill.  Several smaller tubes can be found throughout this area.  It is a fun place to explore.

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Bat Cave

Bat cave is another small Utah County Cave. It extends back only 20 - 30 ft and is rightfully called bat cave due to the sticky guano walls inside. Don't spend too much time inside this one... I became natiouse after spending only 10 minutes near the back of the cave.

These holes are lower down in the canyon and have some Indian writing nearby.  Only a couple were large enough to get into, but did not go very far.

Upon entering this cave I discovered a raccoon feeding its cubs.  I backed out of this one in a hurry and tried not to fall down the steep cliff face as she began hissing at me.  If you look closely you can see her glowing eyes.

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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!

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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.

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