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.

Directions: Sloans Valley is a few miles south of Burnside, Ky, which is just south of Somerset, Ky., across the Cumberland River. Going south from Burnside, on highway 27, turn right on Minton Hollow Rd. Turn right off that and pass through the trees and you will see the greenhouse. The house is on up the hill.

As far as I know, Tom Crockett still lets people enter the cave system on his property. He wants visitors to let him know when they want to go in.

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 there, such as the one shown at left below.The formation below right is the same one in the background of the photo above.

To get down into the cave, you go past the larger formation shown above. 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.

Last year I took my wife into the front room to show her a little of this place, and these two pictures were made then. She likes caves, and other than this, we went to a couple of small ones so far. We'll probably do a little more and make more pictures.

At right is a shot of this slope from part way down. You can see part of that formation in the middle.

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.

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

Two main ways to go:

1. Upward, along "Applachian Trail", to upper end of the First Lake Room.
2. Through large tunnel to floor level of First Lake Room.

After descending the first slope from the entrance most of the way, you can head left and go up the Applachian Trail. These photos show the beginning of this passage, which has its own slope. Lots of breakdown in this cave. These photos were made at different times.

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

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

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

After the Oasis, the trail passes through an area shown at right. 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.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

-- 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 the 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. Lot 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. There is a white spot right of center--that's David. Shows the scale.

Here are a couple more pictures of this tunnel, the right one being farther along. As you can see, 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. This big tunnel gets the floor flooded now and then when the lake rises.

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. 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 photo at right is facing the front end, where the Appalachian trail ends up. Below is another shot facing the same way, but made from up on the slope that ascends from this junction. This slope leads to the "Hogback." For a bigger view, click here.

This was made on a walk from Echo Junction up to the head end of the 1st Lk Rm. There are a couple of side tunnels, and one near the end I think, but we didn't get into them much. Apparently some people can't enjoy a cave without painting their names and the date on walls. I saw such graffiti one time that looked new at first glance, then I realilzed it had been painted 20 years before. I've seen lots of this junk in different caves. It would be good if people wouldn't do that.

This is the slope going up to the Hogback, as seen from Echo Junction. This is the route to the "Big Room", although I never got there.

The Hogback is a long ridge of breakdown. Jeff, a guy I used to work with is shown in this photo. 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. Didn't know which way to go.

This is another view, at another time. The camera was facing back toward Echo Junction.

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 I think. The height here was caused by breakdown piling up.

There is a way around this pit, and the picture at right was made from the other side. The end of the Hogback is on the left. To get around, when you get to 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 twice, and didn't know which way to go next. Only way was to climb down, or go back.

This is a picture of me on the other side of the hole, near the end of that trip. We went just a little further, and couldn't do anything else but climb down, which was a little tricky there. Turned back instead. Just getting to that point and back out of the cave was a tiresome experience, but I enjoyed it. I would like to know how to get to the Big Room. Even with the map, it was hard to tell just how to get there. I suspect one has to descend from the side of the Hogback and go to that water channel, and head back on that level.

jAt right is another view of the Hogback, with David in the center, heading back toward Echo Junction. This photo shows the large size of this room. It was a little misty in there too.

Tom Crocket has a large black and white picture of the Big Room, which is 80 ft. high. It is so big, the few people in it look tiny.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

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.

| Cave Contents |

| Home |