A geocacher's day in Ft. Stanton Cave by Frank Lerner - Geowalkabout

Geocachers met at Fort Stanton Cave at 10am on the lucky day 7/7/07. Mr. Mike Bilbo, a BLM volunteer greeted the geocachers with a big smile and knee pads. He explained that it is important to be properly outfitted to protect your body and the features in the cave. We were briefed on the helmet lights which had LED and incandescent lighting. We found the LED lighting to be bright and broad.

Mike explained the role of the BLM and the process involved in getting a caving permit. The process is fairly reasonable and straight forward. Mike said that one of the reasons he wanted to show the geocaching community the cave was how relatively easy it is to get a permit. So for those of you who wish to go to a BLM managed cave, do not be intimidated by the permit process. The permit has an exit time on it to act as a leading indicator that a search and rescue may be deemed necessary.

With the permit in the car window, elbow pads firmly adjusted and helmets strapped about the chin, the brave adventures made their way to the cave entrance where obligatory photographs were taken. After the photo op, the group took a few more steps and noticed a big temperature change. It was welcomed with smiles and wonder. Further back in the cave the group took a temperature reading and saw that it was 58.1 degrees. Down into the cave the group proceeded. It started with a fairly steep decent among rocks and steps. From there, the group proceeded to a locked gate which the BLM manages visitor activity. The cave is very misleading, the group thought they were headed west but in reality was heading east. It is difficult to keep up with all the bends and turns. The group ended up going underneath the area where the vehicles were parked and continued east to the next valley.

With eyes wide open, the adventurers where greeted with soda straws, cave velvet, flow stones, gypsum stars, small draperies, angel hair, manganese pendants, cave pearls, splash zones, popcorn, slippery steps, and little pools of water. This million year old cave is thought to have formed by powerful faults and some of the fault lines can be seen from within the cave. Then over time water moved clay and silt and dissolved a lot of minerals. Some of the minerals have been re-deposited into breath taking shapes and crystals. In recent history, the amount of water in the cave has varied greatly. The group has seen water lines along the cave walls and clay floors with desiccation cracks.

Of all the interesting sights, the fascinating splash zones are captivating. This process is unique to Fort Stanton Cave. Imagine a drop of water dripping off the ceiling of the cave onto the floor. There were places that looked like a sidewalk just when the rain was starting to fall and two different colors were seen. Now imagine another drop falling in the same place, then another and yet another. The place where the water hits is called a splash zone. It starts off smooth and wet but over time a crater is created. Some of these craters could be four or five inches deep. Over time, minerals are deposited and the splash zone is replaced with a formation inside the floor of the cave. After the ‘hole’ is filled in, the water and minerals flow out from the splash zone and deposit on the floor of the cave. The result is a type of cone. The group saw some damaged cones on the trip that were basically flat with some two to four inch protrusions on the floor side of the ‘stone’. Pretty fascinating.

The group found themselves in a variety of named rooms. The round room is a room the group avoided but some people will go in there and then get disoriented. The subway looks just like a subway tunnel. The main path goes along a set of debris piles which makes travel a little difficult. Over time, portions of the ceiling fall to the floor and then become partially covered up by clay. Some of the debris piles are wet and very slippery. The group found themselves in a room with a large debris pile which to-date has been unnamed. There was a lot of talk about aliens on the journey because of the Roswell festival that was going on concurrently and motel rooms in the area were impossible to find. Regardless, this room had a perfect dome in the ceiling that was something like 30 feet in diameter. The awe inspired adventurers agreed that it resembles a flying saucer and that this room is now to be known as the Roswell room. It was really fun to get to name part of the cave. Mike said that he would take this name back to the powers that be.

Now things start to get interesting. In 1853 a group of K Company U.S. cavalry surveyors explored this cave. They spent days mapping what they could as part of an effort to map the southwest. Remember they explored this cave without flashlights and kneepads. It must have been a real adventure. The dauntless group found themselves at the beginning of a place named devils hole. It is a 600 foot long section of cave that must be crawled through. There are two places that people can stand in to stretch and rest. One of the little rest spots is named singing rock. Here a person can hum in a low tone and the rocks will hum along. Couriouser and couriouser. At the end of the crawl way some of the soldiers signed their names into the side of the cave. The BLM know exactly who these individuals are. Are their names also at Inscription Rock in the Malpais? Mike explained how to tell old writing from modern day writing and printing. That in itself was very interesting.

The group stopped to enjoy a lunch break. Mike mentioned that the group was about 125 feet directly below a geocache named ”Billy’s Lost Cache”. Mike placed a ‘leave nothing behind’ travel bug and associated information in this cache. The group peered through small holes in the side of the cave and saw rooms filled with long gypsum needles made of selenite. These needles were all sizes with the largest about 10 inches long. They were an orangish brown (umber) color.

Mike was asked by his peers earlier to change the lock combination to yet another gate near to where the group was. The gate goes across a narrow and shallow space which separates cave sections. It was here where a cave millipede was spotted. It was about a half inch long and about the thickness of a mechanical pencil lead. It looked like it was spanning great mountains as it crawled over and under pea sized gravel. This gravel starts here and goes further back into the cave. It is volcanic in nature and is not seen anywhere in previous portions of the cave. From here the narrow passage becomes a 1200ft crawl space which is particularly hard on the knees because the pea gravel is along the entire path. Several bats were spotted this far back into the cave and some wing fluttering was heard.

Because of time restraints, this was the turn around point. Mike met another one of his goals … exposing geocachers to caving and their delicate nature. The underground travelers noticed that there were little reflectors placed in key locations throughout the cave. They happened to be red on the journey in but were silver on the way out. This is an easy way to tell where the exit is.

So another adventure comes to an end. Geocachers agree that this is another place that they probably would not have seen if it was not for geocaching. Some photos were taken to note the muddy clothing. A rabbit runs across the path. The air becomes warm again. Smiling faces drive away in their jeeps.