Red Barron Cave

This amazing cave in rock canyon is one of the most decorated caves in the state of Utah.

You need to anchor a rope to a tree that is split in half, rappel down 25 feet or so into the entrance deck.  Located in the back of the deck room, there is a small entrance that is gated.  It gets very tight right off the bat, but it opens up after about 20 feet.  Taking off your helmet at this point helps tremendously getting through. As there are hundreds of delicate formations throughout the cave, please step lightly and be very careful with your head, as that can break formations and hurt pretty bad if stabbed.

Some of the formations in the cave are calcified roots, stalactites, and helectites.

The most decorated passage is off limits for recreational trips. Red Baron Cave is quite cool year round, so long sleeves are recommended.  This is  very long and difficult hike, so be ready to give a good amount of time to hiking.

Professor Buss Cave

This cave is located just to the south of Y mountain and has many other small caves near by.

The cave was originally named after Fred Buss, who was a geology professor at BYU from 1907 to 1927. He took his students up regularly to the cave as section of their class work.  A few years later when Nutty Putty Cave was discovered, most students lost interest in the long and difficult hike to Professor Buss Cave and started going to the more accessible Nutty Putty Cave. In the bottom of the cave there are signatures dating as far back as 1886. Because of the historical value of the cave, the Timpanogos Grotto is attempting to gate the cave. Access should be fairly easy to acquire once the gate is put in place.

Spanish Moss Cave

Photography by Brandon Kowallis

Spanish Moss Cave – Utah County, The cave is gated.  Spanish Moss cave is very well decorated and is a great starting vertical cave.

The “Spanish moss” that it is named after, is located at the bottom of the subway passage where you sign your name in the registry. Spanish Moss is accessible pretty much year-round, and stays about the same temperature. It can get very slick in the main subway passage and requires a rope to get back up.  A 200ft rope can get you past the slick part.

Amazing formations and easy to get to compared to other caves in the area. 

South Madhouse Cave

South Madhouse Cave – Utah County – Starting From the start of the cave, rappel  into the cave about 15 ft or so. After that follow that room downhill through several cracks. Be careful, You will come across  a little pit you drop into. This pit is about 6ft deep. From there you can slip and crawl through another crack that is quite tight. This is where you might come across some popcorn formations. The cave continues beside another crack until it dead-ends.This is a fun cave to start a little vertical work with. Please practice before you go, as it is a little harder in dark places.

The Tabernacle Hill Lava Tubes

The Tabernacle Hill Lava Tubes – Fillmore, Utah – The Tabernacle Hill Lava Tubes near Fillmore, UT can be amazingly fun to explore . The entire area is littered with collapsed lava tubes,tunnels and pits. This has been a pretty popular destination for scouts and family outings.

Pink Lime Pit

Pink Lime Pit Cave – Utah County – The Pink Lime Pit has been a popular location to practice vertical rope work.  I have loved using this location to teach, practice and learn new rope work. The place is perfect because it has several bolts and natural anchors that can be used simultaneously.  I have personally used up to 10 ropes rigged all at the same time. Ropes can be set up and rigged for:

Static rappelling

Traditional rappelling

There’s even an anchor high on one of the walls where you can practice passing a bolt while descending or ascending. I have found passing a bolt or anchor very important to caving in Utah caves.

Springville Cave (Gold Bar Cave)

Springville Cave – Springville, Utah – This cave is mostly horizontal for about 300 feet, at which point the only direction to go is up. Chimney up for about 20-30 feet then there is another horizontal passage. There’s a really tight spot that blocks most cavers, but continuing through opens up to a room that splits off into a few different passages. All of them dead end relatively quickly except for one that goes straight up. Unfortunately the walls are too far apart for chimney-ing, and the rock is too slick to climb, so there may be more we don’t know about.  This could be pushed if there was a small well experienced leader willing to try.  I would not recommend trying if you don’t have many caving leads under your belt.  The fall could potentially be deadly.