Sunshine Cave

Hike Review

• We walked this intermediate cave and found it to be short and sweet.

• The ceiling was low enough that I had to stoop for most of the walk while Cassie just had to stoop for a few sections.

• The floor was pretty smooth and footing wasn’t an issue.

• There were two “windows” on the path which gives this cave its name. These caved-in roofs allow plants to grow on the floor of this cave.

• The end of the cave had some really slow sections that required us to crawl, but those sections were short and uncomplicated.

• The cave itself did not have branching sections and was a simple there-and-back type of cave.

• Unlike the other caves, other people were exploring the cave at the same time. Still, it was just three other people.

• The cave was another short one at 142 m in length.

What I Learned

This was our first intermediate cave and we were glad that we had our bike helmets with us. Even with that protection, we had to learn to move our bodies the right way to avoid injury as jerky movements led to us hitting our backs, knees, and elbows into the rock.

What Happened?

 

We were excited by the description that said there would be cave openings, which were sections of the cave where the roof had caved in. We descended the slightly slippery stairs and entered the cave in a bit of a haste as we noticed another car pulling up to the parking lot—we had no problems sharing the cave, but wanted some cool pictures without other people in the photo.

We got the photos that we wanted and explored the sections of the cave that needed us to crawl and duck-walk. This was the first cave of the day where we noticed certain sections being damp and we found that the bacteria growing in the cave were shiny. The cave was pretty short though, and we made it back to the entrance once we hit the end of the cave.