[trip] Concrete Marble Caves

Many thanks to Dan Crape and other Cascade Grotto members and friends for an enjoyable cave trip this weekend. After meeting in Burlington at 10AM, we caravanned to Concrete, where we met a landowner for access - she's an old rock and ice climber, and after some initial "landowner relations" she very graciously helped us locate two caves on or adjacent to her property. Our numbers gradually decreased over the day, but we started out with 10 cavers, and morning rain gave way to a very nice cool afternoon.

We first checked out Ramses Cave, a down-sloping stoopway in fractured limestone. A short side-spur opens up into a 20' high "big room" with a bit of cave bacon and some nicely sculpted walls, while the main passage continues as a dry stoopway until it surprisingly intersects an infeeder stream that drops into a crystal-clear pool several feet deep.

Next, we trudged through the forest a bit until we stumbled upon the hidden sinkhole entrance of Elderberry Cave. A dirt-slope entrance opens up into walking "hallway" passage for around one hundred feet. Here, a low squeeze and an awkward S-bend reveal additional stooping-height passage which appears to have gypsum(?) lining parts of the ceiling, before the cave ends with a drippy ceiling and a low wet crawl.

Finally, we drove several miles and up, up, up to Jackman Creek Cave, in an exposed marble cliff surrounded by the scars of clearcut timbering. While mostly hands-and-knees passage with nondescript mud-covered walls, an oblong crawl opens up into the "chimney room", a small shower dome where the clean-washing water exposes absolutely gorgeous banded and sculpted grey marble walls. I was so awestruck with the beauty of the marble walls that I didn't notice getting soaked by the dripping water.

See also: more Concrete Area Cave photos