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My fourth journey into the cave, and the groups third, Little Brush Creek Cave never fails to turn up an exciting bit of adventure. What more could a group of Mojave Underground adventurers ask for than an adventure that physically wipes out every ounce of energy and leaves you sore for days. Located high in the Uintah Mountains (40°42'34.01"N 109°30'2.28"W) Little Brush Creek is cold and covered in deep snow. The cave sees an average of 250 visitors per year, January being the most popular time to visit. It is the longest cave in Utah at 5.93 miles and 658 feet deep. It is the 37th deepest cave in the US. Little Brush Creek, along with thousands of acres of snowmelt, flow into the cave each spring, deepening it and moving logs and rocks around.
My brother, Chris, our friend from work, Caleb, and I headed into the cave around 1pm yesterday. With more snowfall and few people venturing into the gaping hole, our snowshoe hike was slightly challenging. Our previous journey with Stuart and Crystal was a bit harder. On that trip, we carried heavy backpacks full of camping equiptment so that we could stay the night at the entrance and recover a little before we headed back out.
There are two main ways into Little Brush Creek. One is to enter the cave through the steep cliffside on the eastern side of the cave. The second way, which is much longer, is to drop down into the river bed on the west side and hike the river. Our favorite choice is the eastern cliffs.
We began our trip heading into the Ice Cave. The Ice Cave is gated to protect the delicate ice structures inside the cave. This year however, the gate has been down. Once inside, you realize just why they are so delicate, foot long crystal ice structures hang from the ceiling. Just a brush of your hair brings them down and they shatter on the ground. Ice stalagtites and stalagmites fill the back portion of the cave. Logs jam you from going very deep inside. Some of the logs are covered in a beautiful golden slime mold, which I have not seen in anything but Nat Geo mags.
After our short journey into the Ice Cave, we headed into the actual cave. Using our experiences from prior explorations, we bought knee and elbow pads to assist us through the rocky cave. The first twenty to thirty minutes are spent traversing narrowing caves and snaking over log jams. Crawls that are so tight that your sides, your belly, and your back are all scraping through; its easy to loose your nerve. In places, the only way to continue is to pull your body forward over the sharp rocks with nothing but your fingers and pushing with your feet. Eventually, we came to a fair stretch of cave that is clean and easy to traverse. Water fills most of thet depressions and makes for some interesting crossing. The temperature raises to a humid and sweaty 45F around this point. Toward the end of this nice hike, we came to what we named “The Big Stretch.†We named it this due to the impossible passage. The water here is deep and the cave walls verticle. I discovered that the rock was sticky and strong, and began stretching across the walls until I reached the other side, a good 20 feet away. The next couple hours of crawling and hiking did not prove to be very interesting. Lots of rocks, logs, and tough passages to traverse. We eventually came to the end of our journey into the cave around 6pm, where water filled the passage and was no longer traversable.
We decided to begin our journey back, which was long, hard, cold, and exausting. We eventually made it out around 9pm, put on our snowshoes, and began the steep climb back up the cliff sides. Nothing ever feels better than seeing your car and driving away from such a grueling journey underground.
My brother, Chris, our friend from work, Caleb, and I headed into the cave around 1pm yesterday. With more snowfall and few people venturing into the gaping hole, our snowshoe hike was slightly challenging. Our previous journey with Stuart and Crystal was a bit harder. On that trip, we carried heavy backpacks full of camping equiptment so that we could stay the night at the entrance and recover a little before we headed back out.
There are two main ways into Little Brush Creek. One is to enter the cave through the steep cliffside on the eastern side of the cave. The second way, which is much longer, is to drop down into the river bed on the west side and hike the river. Our favorite choice is the eastern cliffs.
We began our trip heading into the Ice Cave. The Ice Cave is gated to protect the delicate ice structures inside the cave. This year however, the gate has been down. Once inside, you realize just why they are so delicate, foot long crystal ice structures hang from the ceiling. Just a brush of your hair brings them down and they shatter on the ground. Ice stalagtites and stalagmites fill the back portion of the cave. Logs jam you from going very deep inside. Some of the logs are covered in a beautiful golden slime mold, which I have not seen in anything but Nat Geo mags.
After our short journey into the Ice Cave, we headed into the actual cave. Using our experiences from prior explorations, we bought knee and elbow pads to assist us through the rocky cave. The first twenty to thirty minutes are spent traversing narrowing caves and snaking over log jams. Crawls that are so tight that your sides, your belly, and your back are all scraping through; its easy to loose your nerve. In places, the only way to continue is to pull your body forward over the sharp rocks with nothing but your fingers and pushing with your feet. Eventually, we came to a fair stretch of cave that is clean and easy to traverse. Water fills most of thet depressions and makes for some interesting crossing. The temperature raises to a humid and sweaty 45F around this point. Toward the end of this nice hike, we came to what we named “The Big Stretch.†We named it this due to the impossible passage. The water here is deep and the cave walls verticle. I discovered that the rock was sticky and strong, and began stretching across the walls until I reached the other side, a good 20 feet away. The next couple hours of crawling and hiking did not prove to be very interesting. Lots of rocks, logs, and tough passages to traverse. We eventually came to the end of our journey into the cave around 6pm, where water filled the passage and was no longer traversable.
We decided to begin our journey back, which was long, hard, cold, and exausting. We eventually made it out around 9pm, put on our snowshoes, and began the steep climb back up the cliff sides. Nothing ever feels better than seeing your car and driving away from such a grueling journey underground.
) we still enjoyed ourselves and found a fair bit of adventure. With only one rolled ankle and a pulled shoulder muscle between the three of us, I'll call the trip a success... mostly.
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