Spelunking We Will Go
Spelunking We Will Go
Utah and Wyoming (and a few minutes of Idaho, too!)
Day Seven: Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Our morning started bright and early with a 7am check-in at the Timpanogos Cave Visitor Center. The ranger from the day before asked about our night of camping, so we told her how we had gone shopping and were lucky to have avoided the thunderstorm. As it turns out, we were more lucky than we thought! The folks who were on the last cave tour the day before, the one we missed because I had taken a wrong turn back at Goblin Valley, had to walk down the mountain in a downpour with hail, lightning, and wind! YIKES!!
Apparently, everyone made it down off the mountain soaked, but okay. A young couple had a baby along on the tour, so I can’t imagine how that particular hike was for them! The trail is paved all the way, but it’s not an easy one in fair weather, much less in a thunderstorm, while carrying a baby, too! We dodged a bullet, for sure!
Not the Usual Cave Safety Talk
Since we had visited a cave in recent years, another ranger needed to swab my camera that had been in the other cave. I was fairly certain none of our shoes were the same ones, but the ranger cleaned them, too, just in case. We were given a short safety talk, which had all the usual cave safety topics, but this one also included information about the 1.5 mile hike to the cave entrance. Locals also use the trail for walking or running, and we were advised not to attempt to keep pace with the folks wearing bright colored passes on lanyards because they go fast! We were given 90 minutes for the hike.
Hiking Up to the Cave
In case you weren’t paying attention at the safety talk, there’s a sign posted next to the trail to remind you that this little walk might be a crazy idea! I’ll admit, I had my doubts, but I was fairly certain we’d all be fine. How hard could it be?
The trail is definitely as tough as the sign makes it out to be. We quickly found ourselves on a steady uphill climb. They weren’t kidding when they told us not to try to keep up with the folks with trail passes. They whipped right on past us as we huffed and puffed our way to the top. (Well, I huffed and puffed…the kids probably did not. Ha!) The ever-changing views of the canyon and trail were gorgeous, which made it worth the climb.
We did not want to be late for our cave tour so we did not stop for very many photos. We made it there with just enough time for a quick rest. Our ranger for the tour welcomed us to “his office” as he arrived from the hike up and quickly checked on the condition of the historic restrooms. Yes, there are actual pit toilets at the top! I can’t imagine having the job of emptying those throughout the season! I couldn’t find any info about them, other than that they were built in 1933…guessing that means they are not the composting variety!
Timpanogos Cave Tour
Timpanogos Cave is a limestone cave that is actually three caves connected by two manmade tunnels. Each tunnel has a door at both ends, like an airlock, to prevent the air in the different caves from influencing the ecosystems in the other caves. This particular cave system is known for the large quantity of helictites it holds. I find cave tours fascinating and enjoy the National Park Service caves more than the private “show caves” I’ve visited. The information presented is usually more about the cave features and history, rather than folklore and stories. Timpanogos Cave had pretty good lighting for capturing several of their more interesting cave formations.
Cave tours always end too soon and this one was over in an hour. The tour enters at one end of the cave and exits at the other end, which was where we parted ways with our park ranger. I wish this photo was clearer, but it’s such a cool looking door the ranger has to lock up, so I wanted to share it anyway.
What Goes Up Must Come Down
It was time for the 1.5 mile hike back down the mountain. The temperature had warmed up considerably in the hour we had been inside the cool 46° cave, but at least we could take our time. The views were spectacular now that we weren’t in a hurry to get to the top!
I thought going down was a lot tougher than going up. Don’t get me wrong; going up was no walk in the park. (Well, technically, it was a walk in the park, just not an easy one!) We had to stop for breaks often because my knees did not enjoy the hike back down. I didn’t own a pair of trekking poles, but after chatting with a few folks who did have them, I wished I owned a pair for this trail! (I won’t hike without them now!)
I didn’t find the chained areas nearly as creepy as the rockfall areas. The trail had sections where a red and yellow stripe down the middle of the trail indicated not to stop due to the possibility of rocks tumbling down the slope. Sometimes those “no stopping” zones went a long way down at an angle so we took breaks before going into those areas. We also encountered some trail maintenance workers cleaning up rocks that had fallen down on to the trail during the thunderstorm the afternoon before. That had to have been the worst hike ever for those folks who had been on this trail in that kind of weather!
At last, we made it back down to the visitor center. When I was looking around on their NPS website to refresh my memory for writing this post, I learned that Timpanogos Cave now has a new visitor center, so this one is no longer there. The previous visitor center burned down in a fire in 1991 and had been replaced by a temporary modular building, which was the visitor center we saw in 2017. This “temporary” visitor center was over 25 years old when they replaced it in 2019. We’ll have to go back to see the new one!
We finished up our visit by chatting with the ranger who had sold us our tickets the day before. She was happy to swear in a couple of big kid junior rangers. All of the rangers at Timpanogos Cave were great!
Alpine Scenic Loop Backway
It was 11:30am by the time we departed the national monument, which is located along the Alpine Scenic Loop Backway. We had driven a bit of this road when we were checking out campsites the day before, but had not gone very far. We had no particular destination in mind for the rest of the day so I decided we’d finish off the scenic loop.
Much of the drive was spent winding through the trees on a narrow little road. I’m not fond of tree-lined roads, but eventually, the views opened up to show us Mount Timpanogos. We saw what had to be one of the tallest waterfalls I’ve ever seen coming down the mountain. There were folks out hiking on the trail, but after our morning, we were all ready to sit a while for a drive to our next stop.
Where to next?
It took us a couple of hours to finish the drive through the Alpine Scenic Loop. We had no idea where to camp for the night since my original plan had been for us to be leaving this area in the morning. I stopped somewhere for gas and map reading to decide on a new plan. The interstate across Wyoming didn’t seem like a fun way to go and I have yet to find anywhere to tent camp along I80. The Black Hills were too far away for a 2pm start, so that was out, too. Adding Grand Teton National Park would only add 150 miles, so we decided to go there! I had always wanted to see it!
We set off in that direction and I put Joey to work on finding us a campground for the night. He found one called Alpine North Loop in the Targhee National Forest, which was just a few hours north of where we were. The scenery along the way was beautiful grassland with mountains in the background. We passed through Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and back into Wyoming in a short amount of time, which allowed us to get a photo of the Utah sign since we missed it in the dark on the way into Utah earlier in the trip.
Our drive took us through Afton, Wyoming, which is apparently home of the World’s Largest Elkhorn Arch, according to the sign mounted in the middle of it.
Our campground was north of a little town called Alpine Junction and was right next to a lake, although we never saw the lake from the campground. I learned later that we were just a few miles from the Idaho border, as well. We set up the tent at Site #7 and went into town to look for some supper.
I have no idea how we chose the place we did, but it might have been the only place open at 9pm when we got back into town. The server stuck us way in a back corner and then apparently forgot about us. We all ordered appetizers to share, thinking that would get us our food the fastest, but nope, it took them an hour to bring out our food. Sadly, what we received tasted like they dug it out of the depths of their freezer. What a disappointing way to end an otherwise wonderful day! Needless to say, I won’t be giving any food recommendations here. Hopefully, their service and food has improved in the years since we’ve been there. The best part of this particular establishment was their restroom signage.
We didn’t make it back to our tent until well past 10pm. I thought our night was going to continue to go downhill since we could hear loud music and talking from a group way across the campground, but eventually, the campground was quiet and we could go to sleep.
Speaking of campgrounds, I’ve been working on adding campsites to a “campsite photos” page. We’ve tent camped in over 65 different campsites all over the west so I thought it would be fun to share them all in one place. I still have two more years’ worth of campsites to load up and label, but there are plenty to check out now. Here’s a link: Campsite Photos.
I’d love to hear from anyone else who travels like we do, spending one night here and the next night there….bonus points if you set up a tent every night in a new place!
We’re off to the Tetons in the next post, so be sure to subscribe to find out how that goes! If you know anyone who might enjoy reading about our car camping road trip adventures, feel free to share!