The job with Backcountry.com has again brought me to Utah for a week, and since this time there was talk of working over the weekend I flew out on Friday night. The work didn’t materialize, so the time was instead spent roaming around the Wasatch Front. Rainy weather and lengthy naps limited exploration, but never being one to ignore a green dot on the map I made my way to Timpanogos Cave National Monument this afternoon. Unbeknownst to me Utah apparently has some fairly impressive caves, and after a hike to the cave entrance that was a mile-and-a-half long and involved 1100′ of elevation gain I was treated to the most enjoyable caving experience since a visit to El Malpais National Monument five years ago.
American Fork Canyon in the clouds. Everyone claims Utah is a desert, but today’s hike to the cave entrance was a decidedly wet one.
Good cave pictures require long exposures; long exposures require not being on a ranger-led tour with a group that has to keep moving, so the result is this poor illustration of what was actually a very impressive formation.
So I followed the wikitravel link and saw this picture which looked the same as the one in your post. So I went to the history of the article and Bam! A one night’s work by Mr. Holliday – Awesomeness!
I’m clearly a big fan of cave travel literature. Also, there’s not a whole lot of ways to pass the hours in Utah once the sun goes down.