Northern AZ part II
Had another great trip up north. Went back to a big cave we found last trip and hit a few others. Great weather, 50 at night and 78 during the day. Good thunderstorm Sunday afternoon too. Spotted some deer, skunk, endangered Tiger Salamander, really cool snake and an eagle. Also heard tons of elk bugeling at night
On Sunday we we fanned out through the forest heading towards our destination. I happened to run into a sink hole and then spotted a new cave near by. We spent some time exploring that one. After a VERY TIGHT squeeze in we were awarded with some great formations including cave bacon. We found a cave registry inside and signed it with our official cave club name Zombie Caving. It hadn’t been signed for over a year so its not a very well known cave. Just inside this cave we found a Barred Tiger Salamander. We didnt have time to get the camera out to take pics but we have seen them in the area before.
After a few hours we continued our hike, I happened to find another cave but it had been filled in with mud and dirt from all of the rain. We are going to go back and dig it out a little but to see if it goes anywhere
We finally made it to the hole Jonathan spotted last trip and explored it for a ways. They reported back that they didn’t spot any formations but it looked like it kept going. While we were waiting outside for Jonathan we ran across a Ring Necked Snake (Diadophis punctatus Mildly Venomous).
We made a quick trip back to camp for lunch then headed out to a bigger cave that we didn’t explore completely last trip. After several hours exploring new passages and picture taking everyone agreed it was about time to head home.
When we were leaving Mike spotted 2 more from the road that looked interesting. We didn’t have time to go in them since it was already past 4 but will check them out on another trip
Awesome pics. I love those caves up there and seeing these pics makes me miss them even more.