Aldaron
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- Joined
- Jun 16, 2012
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For something a little different, how about a short trip report from a cave back east?
On April 4, 2015, my wife, a couple of friends, and I went to Tumbling Rock Cave in Jackson County, Alabama. Jackson County has the distinction of having the highest number of caves of any county in the country. And from what I have seen so far, they are some nice caves. Tumbling Rock is owned and managed by an organization called the Southeastern Cave Conservancy, which is a non-profit group that buys caves in order to protect them. Tumbling Rock is, so far, the best non-commercial cave that I have ever been to.
This was the second time I had been to this cave since moving here last year, but the first time without someone to guide me. With over 6 miles of surveyed passages, Tumbling Rock is a very long cave. It also has several areas of rock breakdowns as well as multiple intersecting passages, making it a reasonably difficult cave to navigate. But it has some great formations and I want to start learning it better. So off we went.
The best parts about this cave are its length, its intersecting passages, the Topless Dome, and its great formations.
We didn't have any trouble at all getting to our ultimate destination, which is called the Inner Sanctum. This room is over halfway towards the back of the cave, and it has a really nice waterfall coming down into the room.
On our way out we stopped off at the Topless Dome which is an incredible room. You have to climb up through a waterfall in a hole in the roof of the cave and then walk a few yards to a room that's shaped like a missile silo, is 396 feet tall, and has water raining down from the top. This room is really nice.
From there we just continued out of the cave. We got a little turned around in an area known as the Wildcat Rock Pile (well, we THINK this is where we got turned around). But after a few minutes of combing the rock pile we eventually decided on the correct way out and luckily we were right. All in all, we were in the cave for about 6 hours, and came out wet, muddy, sore, and wanting more.
This is an outstanding cave. Its length and its intersecting passages make it challenging for a newbie to navigate, but it also makes me want to go back over and over again until I figure it out.
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On April 4, 2015, my wife, a couple of friends, and I went to Tumbling Rock Cave in Jackson County, Alabama. Jackson County has the distinction of having the highest number of caves of any county in the country. And from what I have seen so far, they are some nice caves. Tumbling Rock is owned and managed by an organization called the Southeastern Cave Conservancy, which is a non-profit group that buys caves in order to protect them. Tumbling Rock is, so far, the best non-commercial cave that I have ever been to.
This was the second time I had been to this cave since moving here last year, but the first time without someone to guide me. With over 6 miles of surveyed passages, Tumbling Rock is a very long cave. It also has several areas of rock breakdowns as well as multiple intersecting passages, making it a reasonably difficult cave to navigate. But it has some great formations and I want to start learning it better. So off we went.
The best parts about this cave are its length, its intersecting passages, the Topless Dome, and its great formations.
We didn't have any trouble at all getting to our ultimate destination, which is called the Inner Sanctum. This room is over halfway towards the back of the cave, and it has a really nice waterfall coming down into the room.
On our way out we stopped off at the Topless Dome which is an incredible room. You have to climb up through a waterfall in a hole in the roof of the cave and then walk a few yards to a room that's shaped like a missile silo, is 396 feet tall, and has water raining down from the top. This room is really nice.
From there we just continued out of the cave. We got a little turned around in an area known as the Wildcat Rock Pile (well, we THINK this is where we got turned around). But after a few minutes of combing the rock pile we eventually decided on the correct way out and luckily we were right. All in all, we were in the cave for about 6 hours, and came out wet, muddy, sore, and wanting more.
This is an outstanding cave. Its length and its intersecting passages make it challenging for a newbie to navigate, but it also makes me want to go back over and over again until I figure it out.
Featured image for home page:
