Greenhouse entrance

As mentioned in the introduction page, most of my caving was done in 1996 with a friend and co-worker named David. He and I went a bunch of times and made a lot of pictures. Now and then, other friends got involved.

Sloans Valley is a few miles south of Burnside, Ky, which is just south of Somerset, Ky.

As far as I know, the Crocketts still let people enter the cave system on this property. They want visitors to let them know when they want to go in.

Note: Jan. 2, 2012. I recently checked with Josh Crockett and found out that all the caves on their property are closed because of WNS--white nose syndrome which is killing bats. Also, I found out that all caves on Forest Service property are closed for the same reason.

Behind the greenhouse is a pit, several feet across, with an extension ladder set down in there. A plywood door covers the entrance at the bottom.

Duck as you go in, then after a few yards there is plenty of space in the entrance room. The picture above shows the back of this room, at the brink of a steep, rocky slope, the way down to more of the cave [This picture is actually made from two--half of each is good, so I combined them.]. There is another room off to the right of this, and it leads to a deep hole in the floor. There are some formations and flowstone in the front room, such as the one shown at left below.The formation below right is the same one in the background of the photo above.

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To get down into the cave, you go past the larger formation shown in the first picture. It is a little tricky going down, mainly at the top. The rocks are damp and coated with dirt. It's a long way down. Here is a shot of this slope from part way down. You can see part of that formation in the middle.

This view shows the first slope from farther back in the lower room.

Down at the bottom, you go left to get back into the cave. To the right, you can go up and look into a wide pit, which usually had water dribbling down when I went. The amount varied. Sometimes there was water standing in the bottom. The lake comes up into some of this part of the cave. Sometimes the main tunnel going back has standing water.

This is a view of that pit, showing some formations on the back rim.

There is a walkable tunnel that goes back near the lower part, but I didn't get into this pit. There might be a way in.

Another time I went in there I found water running off those formations and down into the pit.

Another shot from that same time when water was running into the pit. I think it was the year 2000, and Jeff, a co-worker at the time, went with me.

Closer view of the same spray.

Sometimes there is a fair amount of water spraying down in this area, and I got these photos from one access. I think this was another part near the pit

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Two main ways to go:

Upward, along "Applachian Trail", to upper end of the First Lake Room.

Through a large tunnel to the floor level of First Lake Room.

After descending the first slope from the entrance you can head left along the floor and go up the Applachian Trail. This photo shows the beginning of this passage, which has its own slope. Lots of breakdown in this cave.

Along the way, you will come to this mass of flowstone, and the other formations in this place called "The Oasis." The trail goes roundabout up through there.

The picture just below shows what you see when you get up there and look back down.

There is a little pool of water with a lot of flowstone and other formations.

After the Oasis, the trail passes through an area shown at right. This is just part of it, but it isn't far to the exit. Lots of little formations there, some of it milky looking.

Eventually, you walk out through a relatively small opening into the First Lake Room, at the first end, near the ceiling. According to the map, this room is 70 ft. high. That is David on the ledge firing his flash, while I fired mine. It took multiple flashes to get this picture.

One time there, we went to the bottom from this upper level. Back out of view of the camera, there is more of a slope that we descended. Once was enough. The other way to the bottom is through the big tunnel along the low route.

This next one shows the front end (west end). We stepped into this room
from a small, openinig near where David is standing.

-- The lower route to the First Lake Room --

When you come down that first long slope from the entrance room, you land in a sizable room. To the right of the room is some rocky slope going up to the pit shown earlier, and a short tunnel near it.

To the left, is the way back to more of the cave. The turnoff for the Applachian Trail is before the bottom if I remember right. From the bottom, head left through the most obvious way,which is big and walkable. Lots of rocks and some water pools. Before long, you will get into this tunnel shown here. This was very impressive to me the first time I saw it. David is a little right of center in this picture. This shows the scale of the tunnel

Here is another shot of this tunnel, farther along.

The ceiling is fairly high.

Below is another scene along the way in this tunnel. There are a couple of waterholes to go around. This one has a channel that goes back under the rock. A couple or more side tunnels can be found, but I didn't get in them.

This tunnel is not very long, and at the other end, it sort of stops. A smaller tunnel connects on the right. The first time there, I think the smaller tunnel had water from wall to wall, so we didn't go through it. We found an opening at the end of the large tunnel, and I got up through it and entered the First Lake Room. It was immense. I couldn't believe the size of it. I hadn't seen a map yet, and didn't know what to expect. That's as far as we went the first time. Seemed like we had gone through a lot getting to that point. The floor of this big tunnel gets water over it now and then when the lake rises. Sometimes it isn't much, and some times it is too deep to get through walking on rocks.

Later on, David and I went back and found the smaller tunnel to be passable without wading. There are white crawfish in pools there, and a sign on the wall about them. The smaller tunnel still had water in it, as it usually does, but we managed to get by it along one side, and used stepping stones near the other end. Finally we came out into the First Lake Room.

The picture at right shows the First Lake Room, with David standing at the mouth of the smaller tunnel, where we exited into this huge room. The camera was facing the front, or west end, of the room. This shows the large size of the room. This is Echo Junction, according to the map. As you can see, there is a pool of water, and it is several feet deep. One time when I was there, the water was almost gone. I happened to fumble my main light (6 volt) and it fell down where the water normally is. I was able to get it back, using my spare 2D light, which I always carried, plus a small one. I always carried extra batteries and bulbs, plus water and snacks. You never know what might happen. I like halogen bulbs too. Much better.

This is the head end (west end) of the First Lake Room, as seen from the bottom. The Appalachian Trail comes out way up there on the right. Some pictures were made from up there. The first time I stepped into this room, at the bottom, and waved my light around, I was amazed at the immense void around me. I had never been in a cave that big, except for maybe a commercial cave with lights on, and I don't think they were that big (saw only smaller parts of Mammoth Cave).

This view, from Echo Junction, is facing towrd the back, or east end of the First Lake Room, up toward the "Hogback."

This is the route to the "Big Room", although I never got there.

Beginning of the "Hogback", or shortly after.

The Hogback is a long ridge of breakdown. Jeff, a guy I used to work with is shown in this photo. This view is facing back into the cave, toward the Big Room. Down at the bottom of this slope is a water channel back under an overhang. I went down one time and looked, but didn't follow it. I thought the way to the Big Room was on top. I tried twice, but never did get there. I now believe that the way is down to the floor of this room, and then east, toward the back end.

This view is from the back end (east end), facing towaard the front end. David was standing left of center, on the Hogback.

If you walk along the Hogback, you will come to what looks like a hole at the other end. Actually, it's a matter of looking down at the main floor. The height here was caused by breakdown piling up.

There is a way around this gap. To get around, when you get near the end, turn right and go down a little toward the right wall, and then back up. You will find a little crawl tunnel that is fairly short. It isn't tight--hands and knees tunnel. This will get you around to the other side. Not sure it would do any good, though. I went there, and the only way to go anywhere was to climb down, or go back.

This is the east end, as seen from the other side of the gap. End of the Hogback is on the left.

Just a little beyond where the previous photo was made is this area, the upper part of the east end of the First Lake Room.

We went just a little further, up there, and couldn't do anything else but climb down, which was a little tricky there, so we turned back instead. Just getting to that point and back out of the cave was a tiresome experience, but I enjoyed it. We thought that was the way to the Big Room, but apparently the route is down the side of the Hogback to the main floor, and then beyond. Not sure.

That pretty well covers it. Last time I was in there was 2002. There is a whole lot of cave in this system. In some places there are tunnels on two or three levels going every which way. People need to be careful and pay attention to where they are going. It's a good practice to look back frequently to see what it looks like going the other way, so you can get a little familiar with the route facing the other way, if you should go back that route. It's better to be careful.

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