Underground adventure: Warsaw Caves

Spelunking.  Although I prefer being above ground or in the sky, I have always been intrigued by the idea of exploring caves.  I tried Scenic Caves and enjoyed it, but I wanted to try caving in a more natural setting.

Enter Warsaw Caves. Although this place is REALLY busy on weekends for camping and the beach, if you go in the evening the caves are relatively quiet. I was also pleasantly surprised that the caves are not only extensive, but deep and very much “at-your-own-risk”. This was just what I was looking for – an opportunity to explore caves on our own without a guide.

There are seven entrances outlined on a map available at the front gate. We did not do all the caves because we were running out of daylight, but if you are willing to climb down, each cave is fairly extensive.  In most cases, you could go farther than the suggested route on the map. Just be sure to pay attention to where you are going!

We went mid-May and some of the caves still had ice in the bottom. Although this was a cool discovery, it made some of the descents rather interesting. There is nothing like falling down a two foot slide, at the bottom of a cave with a low ceiling to make the day interesting.

And headlamps, headlamps, headlamps. We thought one headlamp and several flashlights would be fine, but we quickly discovered this made maneuvering difficult. We ended up spending too much time holding flashlights for each other to see and prevent injuries.

Overall, it was a really interesting location to go caving. We also stayed in the campground because it was late and we needed somewhere to sleep, but I personally would not come here just for camping.  Certainly worth the drive for caving though!

ICE

Kettle

Climbing out

In the cave

Outside

Entrance

Resting in a cave