One day in high school i piled into a jeep with a bunch of other guys and a few girls and we drove out into the Alabama countryside to go look for caves. We had some maps and some word of mouth (this was in the pre-internet days) and a lot of undirected energy. I remember not finding most of the caves, and ending up at one location that was a sandy stream bed.
One of us determined guys saw a tiny hole in a rock at the base of the sand, and started digging it out. He dug out that hole until he could slide down in it. I was amazed that down there was an actual cave passage large enough for several people to stand side by side. Unfortunately that cave was flooded after a short distance.
The Elephants Feet is a formation relatively close to the front end of the cave, and i remembered visiting this area back in high school, in fact, i'm pretty sure i made it all the way to topless dome, but never went up to it because you had to climb up a waterfall to get into the canyon where the dome is.
We did find one promising cave that day. My friends called it Blowing Cave, and it was so promising that the farmer who owned the land had fenced it off and wanted us to pay $10 to go in. None of us had that kind of cash, but i returned on another day with some other friends, and we went in there, and we were amazed. It was much better than any wild cave any of us had been in, In fact, it seemed like we could walk forever through it. I returned several more times to that cave, and we usually explored half hazardly until we either got hungry, started to have difficulty remembering how to get back out, or our cheap K-Mart flashlights started to run out of juice.
These pictures demonstrate the character of the first half of the main passage in the cave, up to where the topless dome is. Large archetypal passage that allows pleasant, fast travel.
This past Christmas i had the opportunity to go back to that cave (commonly called Tumbling Rock), with a friend who is a pretty experienced caver. He has an obsession with the latest expensive LED flashlights (you could seriously use them to replace the headlights on your car). Getting to see the cave with those very bright lights was like being in it for the first time.
One of the coolest sites i've seen, the Topless Dome is 400 feet high, with a veil of water droplets falling downward in slow motion from the ceiling. I think only one pair of people have ever been up there, and one of them broke their leg on the way down.
Tumbling Rock Cave has close to 6 miles of passage. On our trip we traveled at least 3 miles and were in the cave for 7 hours. It was about 25 degrees outside, and we dressed for strenuous activity in 55 degree weather inside the cave. We were surprised how far into the cave we had to walk before the temperature started to rise. The air on that day was flowing into the cave, whereas it usually flows outward. The "blowing" air suggests that there is another entrance to the cave somewhere, but so far none has been found.
I only had one rule the night before, and that was not to get hung over. I broke the rule due to an old friend i hadn't seen in years calling me to go out at 8pm. I had to be ready to leave at 8am, and i suffered badly the whole day. If i hadn't been hung over i'm sure i'd have had the energy to make it all the way to the back of the cave. As it was, i made it almost all the way to the last room, when i petered out at an area where you have to perform some contortionist acrobatics. I dozed off while Jeff pushed on ahead through twisty breakdown so he could get a peek at "Grants Tomb". The trip wasn't a waste though. Although i felt bad, i was thrilled to get to see so much of the cave i had never seen before.
I only had one rule the night before, and that was not to get hung over. I broke the rule due to an old friend i hadn't seen in years calling me to go out at 8pm. I had to be ready to leave at 8am, and i suffered badly the whole day. If i hadn't been hung over i'm sure i'd have had the energy to make it all the way to the back of the cave. As it was, i made it almost all the way to the last room, when i petered out at an area where you have to perform some contortionist acrobatics. I dozed off while Jeff pushed on ahead through twisty breakdown so he could get a peek at "Grants Tomb". The trip wasn't a waste though. Although i felt bad, i was thrilled to get to see so much of the cave i had never seen before.
Farther back the cave gets more challenging, often requiring crawls through breakdown or pretty low (and wet) streambeds. In between the crawls are large rough passages such as this very impressive room. Notice the three cavers in the lower picture.
One of the weirdest experiences that day was climbing "Mt. Olympus". It's a 200 foot high mountain of wet clay with boulders sticking out of it here and there. Our total time going up and down Mt. Olympus totaled an hour, much longer than it had seemed to us. While you climb up the mountain, the ceiling rises behind your back, climbing up at generally the same angle as the mountain side. At the top the ceiling is flat and only inches above your head while you sit. Jeff and I were the first people of the year to sign the new register.
Three explorers are dwarfed in the Inner Sanctum. A side trip deep within the cave that is well worth the effort.
Another highlight was the Topless Dome. A room with a waterfall pouring out of a hole in the ceiling 400 feet above your head! I had been there before, but Jeff had brought a special piece of equipment so that we could see certain parts of the cave in a new light. He brought a High Intensity Discharge arc lamp that puts out 3000 Lumens. That thing produces a heck of a lot of light and for a short time we were able to clearly see the top of the dome. After that the heat from the lamp began producing a kind of fog in the room. In other, drier parts of the cave, like the Inner Sanctum, we were able to use the arc lamp for longer periods of time.
The Pillar of Fire at the top of Mt. Olympus. I wish Nathan had another picture showing how high and steep the "mountain" is. The white wall behind the pillar is actually the roof of the cave, and travels downward, generally parallel with the mud slope, visible in the foreground. If you slipped and fell, which is very easy, you could conceivably fall 200 feet.
When we finally got out it was close to 8pm and felt very uncomfortable in our wet clothes. I started the truck so it could warm up and then we began changing clothes. Just as were were ready to jump in and head off, Nathan Williams came out of the old farmers house, and we talked to him for around 10 minutes, standing in the cold. Nathan, who took all the pictures in this post, is an excellent cave photographer and is a pioneer in the application of SIT lighting in caves. Tumbling Rock is a wild cave, so all the lighting in these photos had to be carried and dragged across miles of passages. Nathan, who turned out to be a very amicable fellow, now lives in the old farmer's house, just a few dozen yards from the cave entrance, so he has access to go in there at any time. Pretty cool.
On another day Jeff took me and another friend to Kennamer Cave. Kennamer Cave is nice because it's a one way trip with an early "bail out" exit for those who are too tired or unskilled enough to make it out the final entrance. It only took about 4 hours but was no less grueling due to long stretches of belly crawling and tricky canyon climbing. I can't find many good images of Kennamer Cave, but you can see the dirty parts of the cave by doing a google image search (there was no way i was bringing my camera in there).
To see many more of Nathan Williams photos of both Tumbling Rock and other caves in Alabama and surrounding areas visit his flickr page: Realms
A partial shot of the house sized boulder called Moby Dick. It once fell from the ceiling and blocks a large canyon passage in Kennamer Cave, forcing cavers to climb over it.
