Trip Leader: Robert Cranney
On Trip: Robert Cranney, Thorpe Cox, Rachele Keske, Trenton Cox, and 11 BYU OAC Members
I got a call from the BYU Outdoor Adventure Club wanting to know if I could take them on a caving adventure somewhere. Well, where could we take a group of poeple that I have never been caving with and I didn't know any of there caving experience? Main Drain it was. But I quickly reliazed that Main Drain was "Closed for the Season", so I had to select something that was of the same caliber. Fillmore Lava Tubes was a good compromise.
We met in Provo at 9:00 am. Once all the BYU people were there, we loaded up and were on the road. I must say, I have never been dissapointed with Thorpe's choice of junk food. That boy is always prepared. We headed out, and were soon at the Fillmore Lava Tubes. Our first stop was Karn Cave. We got the whole group in the lava tube. Not much to see, but it's still the coolest tube in the area. We had lots of fun looking at the owl poop.
Once we were done with that tube we headed over to Tabernacle Hill Lava Tube. This is a cool tube. We headed in the East entrance and slowly worked our way to the west. It was great to see the tubes again. The BYU students were amazed at the way the lava formed the tubes. Once we got to the other side an owl flew out towards the main group. It was cool.
The group had to get back to Utah Valley for dates and Stake conference. Most of which I didn't understand, but I am just a little stone on a large beach.
Our group decided we would have some fun. We decided to head over to the other lava field and see if we could find "Ice Cave". We pulled up to the side of the road about 300 feet to the south of our last search area. I noticed a trail on the west side of the road and decided to follow it. I quickly noticed that the lava field had been cut or formed into some sort of road....hmmm...this is interesting. I knew we were on the right track. Within 10 minutes we were staring at a hole in the ground with wood holding the sides up. We found the "Ice Cave". I quickly ran back to get my camera. When I got to the car, I saw Trenton hiking up towards me. Once I got my camera we hiked back together.
When we got back to the ice cave, I started taking photos. Hmmm....why are there rocks falling from the sky and landing by my head? Hmmm...I don't remember this from my last visit. What's going on? Ha-Hah! Someone is hiding in the field playing tricks on us. So Trenton and I decided to load up the snow balls and started to deply our firepower. We had a huge snowball fight. It was awesome!!! Turns out Thorpe and Rachele were hiding in the hills trying to "Scare" us. Well, we pounded them with snowballs. Ok. We pounded the rocks 20 feet to the right....were not good at throwing....but it was fun.
After being attacked by Rachele with snowballs to the neck and back, I decided we should try and find the Meadow Hot Spring. Of course this was a ploy to throw off Rachele while we re-stocked our snowball pile. Once we were ready to go we deployed our snowballs in an attack...and we actually hit her with one or two. But within two seconds she had reconned and found more snow to attack us back with snow up to our necks. Littrerally. But all was good.
We headed over to the hot springs. It was really nice. The spring is 30 feet deep and 104 degrees. There were lots of people there and we didn't feel good about going in, so we decided to head home. Only to return again some other time.
This was a great trip. I had a blast, as I hope everyone else did. Thanks.
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