The Cave

What an amazing day at Timpanogos Cave National Monument! We arrived a bit early for our 10:15 reservation and as soon as we walked through the door were greeted by a ranger with a clear love of and passion for his work. He recruited Zoe and Ellie into the junior ranger program and they dutifully began working on activities while we chatted and spent some time browsing the exhibits. E and Z ended up interviewing the ranger as one of their junior ranger activities. Ellie learned a lot about what she needs to do if she follows through with her current dream of being a park ranger. We also got some tips on wildlife to look for on the way up the mountain.

That’s right, even though this isn’t one of our mountain hikes we did get to scale part of a mountain. To make it up to the cave entrance we had to travel over 1,000 feet up a 1.5 mile trail. Although it was paved all along the way the red and yellow painted “rock fall areas” increased the perceived danger level dramatically. Most days we probably would have moved through them without a second thought but as we began the climb a thunder/hale storm blew in and the theoretical rock falls became a bit more realistic. We witnessed a batch of good sized rock tumbling down the mountain 10-15 feet away from where we were standing and Molly and I were both hit with small rocks. Meanwhile we were all being pelted with small hail and rain.

We persisted and reached the top as the storm cleared. We were greeted by several more rangers who encouraged us to check out the grotto area at the top which contains several more exhibits about the caves while we waited for the rest of our tourmates to arrive. It was a good stop to make since it inspired a science fair project for both of the girls for next year. Before long the rest of our group arrived at the top and we were taken into the first room of the cave for a briefing on how to behave inside.

Then the second set of doors were opened and we were inside an amazing room full of all sorts of beautiful cavey things that I couldn’t begin to do justice to in an explanation. I asked a lot of questions as we moved through the cave, the answer that was most striking to me was about the uniqueness of the caves. This particular area happens to have the perfect storm of ingredients that were needed to create caves like these. We are definitely fortunate that they were so well preserved so soon after their discovery that they were still there for us to experience today.

Our GPS track and lots of pictures are here.

The hike back down went much quicker than the hike up. At the bottom the girls received their junior ranger pins. We also chatted some more with the ranger who had greeted us when we first walked in. He gave me a poster of the Timpanogos Caves to display in my classroom (thank you!) and a great recommendation for a spot to have our picnic lunch right on the bank of the creek flowing through the canyon we were in. We tend to gravitate to the lesser known and less crowded Park Service sites and this one is now in our list of favorites.

After repacking our gear we headed north to Salt Lake City and our first Kimpton stay of the trip. We’ve already posted the awesomeness of the cake they made for Ellie. What we didn’t mention was the stash of goodies that accompanied it: yogurt popcorn, beef jerky, fresh lemonade, whisky, and waters. We all freshened up from the day and headed down to wine hour. It was pretty sparsely attended tonight so we entertained ourselves playing Exploding Kittens. We also enjoyed BLT flatbread, beer (Zak), wine (Molly), and lemonade (all others). We got a recommendation for a brewery that was only two blocks away for a fabulous dinner and topped the day off with a walk around Temple Square.

It was a fabulous day that ended with decadance, but the highlight was that natural beauty off the cave.