Blowhole Cave

Saturday, November 5th 2005 - Tamie Jensen

On Trip: Ralph Powers, Tamie Jensen I started the day by driving towards Orem hoping for Ralph to call. I had him wait for me at a gas station near his house to avoid the challenge of hunting for where he lives. I picked Ralph up and drove to his house. I noticed some Ralph’s art work and cave pictures. I sat in his living room and went through his show-and-tell stuff. It got me excited to go explore a cave. We packed up and got going around 11a. We drove up to Lehi and down the west side of the lake. Shortly after getting on the dirt road, we came to a gate completely camouflaged by tumbleweeds. Soon we came across a very new sign. It warned of dangerous nearby caves. After some rough road, I was positioning my SUV as an anchor at the cave as previously advertised. I tied an anchor and connected it to holes in my towing hitch with a couple of ‘biners. I cleared it with Ralph and we geared up. Ralph told me about how he and Dixon recently saved a bunny in peril that had mistakenly ended up in the cave. Good job guys. And he showed my why it is called blowhole. Leaning over the log-covered hole, I could feel warm humid air rushing out. He explained how it generates steam in the winter. Ralph went down first to the junction to the fossil passage. I followed carrying an extra 100’ rope. I quickly began to appreciate the beauty of the cave. The colors and water erosion patterns had me taking pictures from the second I had both hands free. Then the fossil passage! I took a lot of pictures of the fossils protruding from the walls and ceiling. Unfortunately, many did not focus with my auto-focus properly and weren’t worth keeping. Ralph was very patient with my obsession of getting pictures of every thing. Ralph kept saying, “You haven’t seen anything yet.” After exploring the fossil passage, we rigged a rebelay and continued down the main passage. The water erosion on the ceiling was well defined. I speculated that this was once a geyser. I also believe that the cavern is on a fault by the way a large calcite vein runs along the ceiling. Poor Ralph. I was certainly in no hurry. I’d take a few pictures, put my camera back in the case to free up my hands, move a short distance, then stop and get the camera out again. I’d jabber rather incoherently about how amazing I thought the cave was. And Ralph would say, “You haven’t seen any thing yet.” I did get some great pictures of the Navajo Blanket wall. I wish I would have some reference in the picture of the relative size. I will get that next time. I went through 2 sets of batteries and 115 pictures by the time we got to the bottom of the main passage. Since I forgot the 100’ rope at the fossil passage junction, we did not drop the miner’s pit. At any rate, we spent 4 hours in there. Time just few by. Ascending out was a good chance for me to work with an over hang or 2. We got out of the cave with out any misadventure to a beautiful sunset. It was the perfect end to a perfect day. Ralph, thanks for your patience and your lead.