Mammoth Cave

Not to be confused with Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, the longest cave system in the world, I am writing about Mammoth Cave of Utah, the longest cave system (I know of) in Garfield County.

I am here experiencing the cave with my family. We drove several miles on a graveled road to the cave opening, which sits amidst a stand of ponderosa pines.

There are four chambers, one of them being the primary chamber, which is the largest and most used. There is a metal grate that seals off the entrance, except for a low two-foot opening. This part is sealed shut during the winter to allow for bat hibernation.

We enter the main chamber first. The beginning is wide, and relatively high. Anciently, these caves were lava tubes. They still give the impression of walking through a tube, possibly replicating the feeling that Jonah must have felt when he was swallowed by a whale.

All four chambers of Mammoth Cave can be accessed from this opening in the ground.

Chamber #1.

Not too far in, the cave becomes somewhat damp, with moisture collecting on the ceiling of the cave. At this point, instead of a flat dirt surface to walk on, the floor is strewn with large chunks of slippery rock. A musty smell is present on the cold air of the cave.

Here, the ceiling drops lower and I am having to tip my head and watch for protruding rocks. A light of some sort is imperative inside the cave, as it is pitch-black otherwise.

Chamber #1.  Jenna is pointing her flashlight toward the small tunnel where the cave continues.

Soon, the large chamber gives way to a shallow chamber. Travel becomes cumbersome, and I am on my hands and knees. At this location, I'm not sure if the cave suddenly stops, or has an exit.

As we continue, the passageway shrinks even more, and I find myself squeezing through a small enclosure. I can't help but to think of the Nutty Putty Cave incident a few years ago when a man got stuck inside a very narrow crevice and died after several days and efforts to get him out. I hesitate to continue, but I have Jenna and Savanah with me and they are both very determined to discover where the tunnel leads.

After squeezing through the small enclosure (which is much more difficult when carrying a little backpack, camera, and tripod), Jenna hollers back and notifies me that she has found a light at the end of the tunnel!

We move toward the light, which throws a substantial glow into the cave, and we can see well enough that we know that we have reached the terminus of the tunnel. Above us and to our left, we find the exit hole, covered with a grate, but with a hole just large enough to squeeze through. We climb up the rocks and through the grate and once again find ourselves amidst the ponderosa pines and tall summer grass of the Markagunt Plateau. We are only about a hundred yards from the entrance of the cave.

Exit to chamber #1.

As we return to the main entrance, we find the second chamber at the opposite end of the large entrance hole in the ground. As we slip inside, I feel like I am in the tube station in London.

I find myself walking sideways with my head extremely tilted to avoid contact with the ceiling of the cave. Soon, I am on my hands and knees, banging my joints against the hard surface and dusting up my pants and belly of my shirt. At one point I have to army crawl.

Once again, we see the light at the end of the tunnel and emerge successively.

Exit to chamber #2.

The entrance to the third chamber is just above the entrance to the first. To enter it, one has three options: 1) climb up a twelve-foot rock face, 2) shimmy across a rock ledge that goes over the first entrance, or 3) return outside and enter through a ceiling hole in the ground and lower yourself in.

Being that I have two young daughters, I choose the safest of them all, option number three. This tunnel is very similar to the second, being a smooth, shallow tube. At one point we come to a fork in the tunnel. The right fork appears bigger. It is very wide, but it is also very shallow. A little too shallow for me. I could probably squeeze through, but I would be sliding on my belly for a long distance, with the cave ceiling right at my back. That is a little too scary for me.

The left fork doesn't appear to be much better in the beginning, as I would have to squeeze through a thinner passageway, with a slightly higher ceiling, but also over a large boulder. We squeeze through the left fork and find ourselves inside a slightly bigger room where I can stand on my knees without my head scraping the ceiling.

Two of the entrances to chamber #3.   

Near the entrance of chamber #3. 

Exit to chamber #3.

Jenna, always taking the lead, finds a ray of light and once again we find our exit to the outside world. At the terminus there are two possible exits: one where you can climb up the rocks, and the other, more like a natural air vent, where you have to use your arms to pull yourself up.

We find the fourth chamber. It is near the first and third, but to the right. We don't have time to explore it. There is defiantly more prospecting to be done here, as well as knowledge to learn, such as the geology and history of the cave.