Spelunking at Maquoketa Caves State Park

Today, after a short discussion of what we were going to do, the kids begged us to take them back to the caves to do more exploring.

This Luna Moth was above the bathroom door.  I've never seen one in person, so this was a treat.

The kids wanted to go back through some of the areas where they got really dirty and had to crawl at times.  They also were interested in trying a few new places as well.

The weather was beautiful and breakfast turned out to be a lot of fun, with everyone trying their hand at campfire cooking.

Evereett was excited to cook his pancake over the fire.

Fried egg, cooked for mom.  Thanks Ethan!

After breakfast, we changed into our grubby cave clothing and headed back to do some more cave exploring (a.k.a spelunking).

Notice the holes in the wall face.  These can be explored too if desired.

Who's in there?

It's Everett!

Letting the kids explore way up there made me slightly nervous.

Ethan, heading in with his headlamp.

Amanda, heading into Stone Gate Passageway

Exiting Stone Gate Passageway

The kids enjoyed peeking and poking their heads into any area they could find.

The whole crew, loving Maquoketa Caves State Park.

After exploring a lot of the caves we explored the day before, we spoke again with the naturalists, looked at more animals, and then decided to try a new cave, Wye Cave.  It was described as a little more advanced, with a 15-foot drop into the cave and then extending 350-feet underground.  Sounds interesting, huh?  Exactly!

Everett holding a friendly Bull Snake

A very friendly Bull Snake!

This King Snake got really friendly with Elliot too.

He might never hold a snake again.  He instantly ran to me after this photo.

The hike to Wye Cave provided a lot of sticks for Elliot to gather and play with.

Set back in the woods, this one was slippery to get to with the wet clay trail.

The kids were excited as soon as we came to the cave entrance.  It was not like the normal openings, it was a hole under a large rock that you need to lower yourself into.  Of course, everyone was excited to check it out, so the dads went first my friend and I stood outside, watching as each of our children followed down the narrow hole (all except for our littlest kids, who were happy to play on the clay/mud coated hillside).

One by one, they disappeared into the cave.

With it being a long drop, Derrick helped to lower the smaller kids in.

While everyone was spelunking, Elliot and Elise played in the mud with sticks.

...and tried their best at climbing the slippery clay slope.

Mission accomplished!

I did it!!

At one point, the room narrowed so much that Derrick couldn't fit, so he handed off his cell phone camera to Ethan and let him take photos.

Ethan and Everett at the narrow area of Wye Cave.
Maybe it's named Wye Cave because there are a few different options from this spot?

Ethan didn't crawl through this water, but would consider it next time.
He couldn't tell if he had to belly crawl the whole way or not.

I wanted to check it out (I mean, who isn't curious, right?) so I passed Eli off to my friend after she came out of the cave, and I lowered myself in with my cell phone flashlight leading the way (Derrick and the boys had headlamps and flashlights).

After dropping down the narrow opening (15-feet down) you come into a room that descends and opens up.  Walking over boulders and large rocks, you come to a base that levels off and narrows. This was where I stopped (that's the place where the boys were in the photos above) as I wasn't into crawling into the complete darkness with just my cell phone, especially since everyone was on their way out as I was going in.  I guess, at the narrow you crawl through a rocky area into a smaller room. This was where Ethan stopped, but he reported that there was another opening he could have belly crawled through if he kept going, but it was under a few inches of water.  Maybe next time?

This is a photo of everyone on their way out of the cave.

Once we all climbed out we were pretty dirty, and the kids seemed to be even more coated from crawling through all the other caves.  We hiked back out to the grassy clearing and hosed everyone off at the wash station.  I think the kids had just as much fun with me washing them off with the hose as they did crawling through the caves.

Everyone was exhausted and hungry so we headed back to camp to make hobo packs for dinner, let the kids dry off in the sunshine and pack up to head home.

I'm so glad we took the adventure and tried Wye Cave.  If you ask Ethan and Everett, that was the best part of the trip!