One of the highlights of the Christmas vacation for me this year was the trip to the Bloomington Caves near St. George. I’ve been there before several times, and have even posted about it in the past, but several things were different this time around.

First off, it appears that a local caving group has been hard at work cleaning up the cave. They’ve done sand blasting to remove tons of grafiti. They’ve mapped out several trails that you can use to guide yourself through the cave, and even posted it all online (see the link above).

Second, i took both Alex and Ellie with me, as well as my brother. I was worried that Ellie might not like it so much once we actually got inside, but she had a blast. We spent over three hours crawling around, sliding down steep inclines, using ropes to lower ourselves into vast rooms, squeezing through tight holes, and just generally having a blast.

And third, we actually have gps coordinates of the cave entrance now. I finally decided to take my gps and mark exactly how to get to the caves. Previously, i would just remember that i need to turn here, turn there, follow that dirt road, turn again at the fork, etc..etc.. So if anyone is planning to head out to the caves but isn’t sure how to get there, ask me for directions. I’ll be happy to let you know.

Oh, we also found a geocache very near to the entrance. In fact, it was almost in the same spot where we spotted the snake last month when we were out at the caves (that trip was simply to get the gps coordinates – we didn’t have any caving gear with us at the time).

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Mar 232003

Hello all. I had a fun weekend and thought I’d share. Last weekend my parents came up to visit and when the left they took Ellie down to their house for a week. Ahh, the piece and quiet of only one kid who doesn’t have anyone to bug or blame :)

Anyway, this weekend we went down to pick her up. While we were down there, it just so happened that it was my brothers birthday. So I decided to take him caving with me. About 30 minutes outside of St. George there is a large cave known as the Bloomington Cave. It’s not too difficult, but it does have some dangerous spots where ropes are requied. In fact, just 3 months ago a young girl was killed when she slipped and fell over 100 feet down one of the ledges.

Fortunately no one fell, although my brother and I did have a few scrapes and bruises by the time we were done. The cave is highly vandalized in the upper sections, but is actually quite nice once you get down deep. There are many “soda-straw” and “bacon” formations.

If you want to go, I can give you directions, but be ready for some slimy tight crawlspaces as well as long, steep cliff ledges.

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