Ash Cave

Thursday
Another glorious day. After a good breakfast at the lodge, and taking some more photos of the building, we set off for a fairly short hike from the lodge down to Whispering Cave. However, we didn’t quite make it. We were just in sight of the recess Cave, but we ran into a patch of slick ice on slanting rock steps, and despite my nano spikes, I just didn’t want to chance it, so we retraced our steps and continued along the upper trail in the other direction for a little way. Then we drove to Ash Cave, the most spectacular feature in the park, and the largest most impressive recess Cave in the state. The horseshoe shaped cave measures 700 ft from end to end, 100 feet deep from the rear Cave wall to its front edge, with the rim rising 90 feet high. A small tributary of the East Fork of Queer Creek cascades over the rim into a small plunge pool below. The lighting was just beautiful, both on the golden sandstone, and through the cascading water. Some impressive sized icicles hung in places from the overhang. We walked to the cave along the valley floor, then climbed up, and returned along the rim.
From there, we drove onto Conkles Hollow, which provided us with more icy wonders, such as the icy cross, shown in an extra, formed by a fallen branch!
I wish we could have stayed another night, but we needed to be back for choir and hand bells this evening, and in any case, we have another big trip coming up soon!
Just posted two blips together - do check out yesterday’s “Devil’s bathtub”!
Step count: 16,642