January 1, 2006
I first went to this cave in latter 1995; found it, then not long after I took my new caving partner there for a look. We didn't see a whole lot, just had a fairly brief introduction to the place. I intended to go back some time, but about ten years passed before I went back. I made most of this web page in 2002, based on that first short trip inside. I recently went back for another look, to show some other people how to get there, and to make more pictures. This was mainly a recon trip for the other two guys. I saw a little more than the first time, but didn't go far. This cave evidently floods every year, and it is muddy. I made several usable pictures, and I'll add them to the end of this original page, in their own section.

Eureka cave is in McCreary county. Directions have been deleted.

The first time I went, just to find the cave, I parked my car at the highway and walked all the way back. I had my big dog Jack with me at the time. The entrance, shown at right, goes down, so it is not visible from the creek bed. Before I went there, I had talked with a man who lived not far from the cave. He said the cave floods when the lake rises, and that there were tunnels going back, but he didn't know much about it.

Once there, I stepped inside, and walked down a rocky slope into a good size room. The ceiling is fairly high, and I was surprised. I expected a much smaller room. The floor was muddy, and I didn't see any cave formations, or little ones if any. It appeared there was only one passage going anywhere, and the opening to it is slightly downslope of the main floor. The opening is not high, you have to stoop some. I didn't go in then, just made pictures of the front room. My dog waited at the top of the slope, near the entrance. He didn't like caves.

This is the front room, on the left. The passage to the tunnels is on the right, down low, not shown here. Not long after finding the place, I took my new caving partner David to Eureka. It was still muddy. We entered that low side tunnel and soon after it got bigger. Then we had plenty of room. Just a bit further, we found a side opening that led to the lower tunnel shown below. The way down is by going down a steep, muddy slope. We had a rope, but didn't try going down. The slope was too steep and slippery looking. This tunnel might go somewhere. It looks plenty big enough. I thought we would go back some time and investigate, but never did. Going past this and further along, we found a sizable tunnel in there, as shown on the right. It looks narrow here, but is widder in places.

We continued on through the main tunnel. Seems like we passed through a room or two and then continued a little further until we came to an area with two or more choices. That place is shown below right.

Below left is another view of the front room, from the back end looking toward the entrance, which is that little light patch, right of upper center.

This is another place we found in there. Don't remember where it is, but it has to be near the main tunnel. That might go somewhere. That's about all we encountered, since we didn't go far. Some pictures were too dark to put in here.

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January 1, 2006
There is a lot of cave there; plenty of sizable tunnels to walk through; different ways to go. The other guys, Damian and Ian, went down into that tunnel shown in the 5th picture above and checked it out a little. It goes. They weren't down there long, then came back up and we went back into the areas shown below, and on the previous part of this page. They made some short walks to check out different passages. I believe people could spend several hours in there looking around. They told me this cave has been mapped at about 2 miles. Seems like it ought to be more.

December 2005

This is the front room, facing the entrance, which is up the slope.

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