Thanks to some great friends, caving is finally a family activity. With the encouragement of my good friend @DesertSurvivor I was ready to take my kids caving. Our group included 3 families and six children, ages 2 through 8. We met up in Baker Nevada and caravaned in our trucks toward toward the cave. The cave was located a short hike from a partially washed out road on BLM lands. The area was recently burned by a wildfire and much of the soil was no longer protected from eroision.
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| Our group, adults and kids |
The cave is low in elevation and not far above stream level. The entrance is a short drop onto some boulders that is difficult to manage with shorter arm and legs. We ended up just lowing the kids down with one dad at top and one at the bottom.
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| Once inside it was time to keep up with everybody's gear. |
This was a slow moving trip as the kids needed help naviagting the uneven terrain. We decided to move to a low mazw area and have the kids crawl around and explore on their own.
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| Kids exiting the maze area. |
We continued deeper into the cave to a lower passage that terminated at a small pool. With harnesses made out of webbing, the older children climbed to an upper passage and explored while the little ones carefully ate snacks.
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| The all exited with big smiles. |
We climbed back out of the cave and were ready to hike back to the cars for lunch.
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| View of the landscape 1 year after the wildfire. |
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| Still Time for duck, duck, goose. |
Caving with kids is a great time and the experience opens up their world to a different type of exploration . Our caving groups is a mixture of scientists (geologist, ecologist, wildlife biologist, and archaeologist) each adding a different perspective during our trips.
Kids Caving Gear:
-Bike helmet
-headlamp (use duct tape to attach)
-gloves
-tough pants
-long sleeve top or jacket
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