Bible Springs Cave

Bible Springs Cave is, so far, my favorite cave. It is a horizontal cave, meaning that you do not have to have gear to rappel down into a pit and ascend back up the rope and out of the cave. Bible Springs is a wet cave and if cold water is a problem a wetsuit would be helpful. I suspect it got its name because of the water coming out of the rock, bringing to mind the story of God providing the Children of Israel with water from a rock.

I had been to the cave once before with a friend, but on June 14, 2007, Jonathan (my son), Laurel (my daughter) and I went in with a camera. Here are some of the sights we saw.

Entering the cave was a bit of a tight squeeze for me.  The black pipe that comes out of the cave is used for drinking.  It goes back a hundred feet or so to the top of a six foot waterfall and stops.  Even though it was the cleanest cave water I have seen I do not think I would want to drink out of it. 

Jonathan was the first in the cave.  As soon as he ducked down to go down the first passage he met this spider.  Legs and all it was about three inches across.  Normally you do not see such large spiders.  Near the entrance of caves you may find a lot of cave crickets.  This spider was real startling to see and to know that it might have been above you where you would not have seen it and could have dropped down your neck.

Next we found a large crayfish.   It was about six or seven inches long.

The beginning passageways were fairly narrow with clear water flowing out and wind blowing out.  Even after walking through the water it remained clear.  The rocks were clean with no mud anywhere.
Another view of the passageway near the beginning.  This picture is taken looking back to the top of the six foot waterfall.

Another picture of the beginning passages.  The water here was about a foot deep.  The ledges on either side became so narrow at times I had to crawl under them.  In this section of the cave sound resonates off the walls, particularly low sounds.  It is a lot of fun to sing here.  You can also hear the sound of waterfalls.  The water may be only dropping a few inches and a long way off, but it sounds like a majestic waterfall.

When the passage became too narrow I passed off my cave pack to Laurel.

A formation in one of the early passages.

More formations along the passage.  The edge of this formation looked like feathers.

We found a few salamanders along the way.

The narrow passage eventually opened into a larger passageway that followed a stream.  This is a picture of a formation that, if you use your imagination, looks like a budding flower.

In the large passageway there are a lot of formations.  Here is a cluster of fancy stalactites.

At one point there is a water crawl about 50' long.  Jonathan did his best to stay as dry as possible.  I just tried to make sure the camera stayed dry.  I keep it in a "Pelican Case", a watertight, hard plastic case.  I didn't want to take any chances, so I kept the case out of the water.

After the water crawl we soon left the stream and climbed up a lot of breakdown to the large formation room.  Although we were wet and cold it was worth the trip.  Soda straws and stalactites were across the ceiling.  Stalagmites were on the floor and columns went floor to ceiling.  Flowstone covered a lot of the walls.  This room was why we had come.

This is flowstone with some draperies forming.

Along one wall there is a cluster of stalactites.

Soda straws with a deflected stalactite.

A large column with stalactites and soda straws.

Soda straws:  These are hollow with water flowing down the middle and a drip forming at the tip.
This picture was taken with the camera on a tripod and no flash.  The light was from two headlamps.  The color is much whiter than pictures taken with the flash.  I wanted to take more pictures using the tripod, but due to wet clothes and fatigue we decided to head back out.  

I will be going back to take more pictures and enjoy once again the strange world underground.