A first caving trip

coming down the trail

When Kip sent out an email asking who wanted to help take his Daughter on her first cave trip. I was very happy to see that I had the day free.

We decided to head down to Natural Bridges. This turned out to be an excellent choice as we had wonderful weather for the hike and since there is a nice trail down to the stream Faye was able to walk all the way down on her own. Though Kip did give frequent warnings about rocks on the path and the poison oak alongside the trail. We found quite a few people swimming and picnicking at the upper section of cave so we headed to the downstream where it was less crowded. Here I found a surprise, there were literally dozens of crayfish crawling around the rocks at the entrance. While its not uncommon to see one or two this was the most I’d ever seen and Kip and I agreed it was unusual.

Crawdad at the entrance to the lower cave.

Next we geared up for a little caving, there’s not a huge amount of passage in the lower section but we had fun exploring and admiring the formations.