What is caving? Well, in layman's terms, it's crawling around through a small hole that leads into the side of a mountain. Well, that's what it means in the Sangre's. If you've never tried it than you have absolutely now idea how thrilling AND interesting this sport is. I first noticed that were some caves near my cabin in Colorado when I was looking at a local map of the area. It was just a general map but it listed a place call Marble Caves. I had no idea what this meant really and basically suspected that there was nothing much there. So I set out in search of these alleged Marble Caves. Well, it seems I could not have been farther from the truth. These are some of, if not THE, highest (elevation wise) limestone caves in North America. Most of them are nearly at 12,000 feet above sea level. Most of them? Yeppers. It seems there are close to a dozen, that's 12 for the unlearned, caves up there in the same general area. One if which is the famous Spanish Cave or La Caverna Del Oro (also called Marble Cave). i.e. The Cave of Gold. It's reputed to be the most unpleasant and most difficult cave to explore in Colorado! It's also reported that Marble Cave, with over 3,500 feet of passageways and approximately 700 feet of relief, is probably one of the deepest caves in the nation. It contains many unexplored areas. The humidity in these caves is probably close to 90% while temperatures hover around 32-36 degrees F. Exploration of the inner reaches of Marble Cave should be left to experienced spelunkers. Rope work is required and investigators must be able to "chimney" up or down vertical chasms for extended periods of time. I cannot emphasize enough that this is an extremely dangerous cave. Needless to say I did not attempt to enter that particular cave. I was able to enter a few of the others though. I've been in 3 of them so far (but only exploring one fully) along with a few of my cohorts. Shawn was with me on my first excursion into the caves. Dave went with me on round two. And Belinda, Ernie, and Shawn accompanied me on trip number three. I've been up in the area of the caves probably 6 - 8 times just doing some exploring, looking for less strenuous routes to them, and seeking out the other caves. Being at 12,000 feet these caves are pretty much a chore just to get to. And some of them have their entrances covered with snow 10 or 11 months out of the year! In the summer of 2002 Belinda and I made a trip back to the area of the caves. This time we decided to spend a couple of days on the mountain so we could have plenty of time to explore more than one cave. Lane Cawthon along with Scott and Jonanna Hester joined us on this round. So we packed up supplies and gear for about three days and once again headed up Marble Mountain. You know, hiking straight up a mountain with a 100lb. pack on your back takes quite about out of a person. Check out some of the pictures on this trip. Here are some pictures of my latest crawl through the Marble Caves with Gary Wiles in the summer of 2003: Gary and I at the Marble Caves

Here is the view from the valley looking up into the mountains where the caves are located.	This is a picture looking down from the same caves.
Here is a view from below a few of the caves looking up towards them in the rock outcropping.

1 | 2 | 3 Next >

MOTORCYCLES   WU SHU   CAVING   CABIN   SNOWBOARDING   COLORADO   AVIATION   FRIENDS&FAMILY   GUESTBOOK   CONTACT   THE TOOLBOARD   LINKS   HOME jmurray3.us