I agree with Ben that we need something to do. I've tried to include places where we could have fun, explore, and that are more in our driving range.
- Cathedral Gorge (1 hour 34 min)
- We know this is cool. Also, I was told that there are similar canyons close by that are not actually in the state park. We could do whatever we wanted. Cool beans.
- Bull Valley Gorge (2 hours 30 min)
- A long slot canyon. Could be fun, but it is long.
- Bryce Canyon (Less than 2 hours)
- National Park, but lots of cool things to see, hiking trails, etc. Can't run wild, though.
- The Mine @ Milford (1 hour 20 min)
- Cool tunnels, excellent exploration. Not a great camping area (although Glen and I did camp in the opening of it) And it's legal.
- Notch Peak (3 hoursish)
- One of the tallest vertical faces in the United States and it's near Delta. Great hike, view. Look it up to see.
- Mammoth Cave area (Less than an hour)
- I'm on the trail of a cave nearby known to only a few people, supposedly large and unexplored. Below I've included some notes taken from a book about the cave. I also recently made contact with someone who's been there and it's still there. He's simply covered the entrance...his email to me is also below.
"Zella, my wife, and I decided to spend
a couple of days on the mountain. I had told her about Mammoth Cave
and she wanted to see it. I had only been there once, seventeen years
earlier, but in my minds eye I knew the road. What I didn't know was
that there were two branches of the road about one-hundred yards
apart. I took the first on which got me confused. I was so sure I was
right that I would not give up hunting. Leaving Zella and LaKay, our
baby, at the car I began hunting through the trees. I had about given
up and was headed back to the car when my heel broke through soft
dirt." He goes on to detail how they entered and whatnot.
"We passed other intersecting branches
and at one place the tunnel opened into a room which I believe to be
seventy-five feet across."
"As we reversed our steps the other way
and slightly down hill we began to find odd formations where the
liquid rock had dripped from the ceiling and had built into odd piles
of funny shapes and sizes. As we neared the end of the tunnel Leon
began crawling into another small hole. I tried to persuade him to
come back but my pleas were of no avail. I listened to his excited
Oh's and Ah's and his exclamations for a few minutes and then decided
to see for myself. As I entered the reason for his exclamations was
easy to see. Before me was a fairyland of the most fascinating little
statues resembling elves, fairies, and goblins. Little animated
characters of all kinds that one could imagine, ranging in height
from one inch to eighteen inches all built up of pine nut size drops
of molten lava dripping drop by drop from the ceiling and as the
drops had left the ceiling they had gradually built a stalactite
formation as as a cooling breeze cooled the outside the hot lava
inside had dripped on through lengthening the stalactite and leaving
the inside hollow resulting in paper thin tubes from the size of a
match stick to eighteen inches in length and an inch in diameter.
Most of the large ones, however, were so delicate that they had not
been ale to support their own weight and had fallen to the floor.
There is an area of several hundred square feet of this formation.
The ceiling in this room is a gradual oval and is from nothing to
about six feet in height."
Recent email to me from the writer's son: "Regarding the caves, there are many, but not worth the effort, except
for Our Cave, but it is not open at this time, I covered the opening
over to protect it. It is several miles long and unexplored. I may
return later this year."
We could find it. I'm sure he simply covered the entrance with trees or rocks. We have some details as to the general location.
