Miller's Cave

Saturday I met up with a group of people from the Cincinnati Grotto.  We met at the Great Saltpeter Cave Preserve, and then we all drove to the location of Miller's Cave.  Shane Mullins was leading this trip.  We were going to go in one of the main entrances, and come out another entrance which is part of Joint Cave.  The main entrance is a room, with a crack on the right side that you must squeeze into.  Then it is a series of ups and downs, and crawling to get to an open area where the Hawg's Hole Entrance is.

                    (Taking a break in Hawg's Hole)
While people rested I worked on getting some photos of formations around the area.

Shane then led us on through some very beautifully decorated places.  Along the way we had to skirt a deep pit.  We crawled under a ledge to get around it.  At a point where we did a free climb we did some "exploring" for a little bit.  There was a very nicely decorated area with some neat "bubble like" formations.

Then we continued on until we reached an area called Malfunction Junction.  Along here we passed some very beautiful pillars.

Then we climbed down to a lower level.  We were now in the Quagmire.  I had remembered being here the first time I was in the cave.  It's a really tall canyon.  We stopped here and ate some snacks, talked, and some of us walked to the back of the canyon.

Then we got to do some walking, and we cross along another pit.  This time we crawled along an open ledge and held onto a cable bolted to the wall.  This is the farthest I had been.  I remember turning around at this point when I was with guys from the Bluegrass Grotto.

Then there were two crawls ahead of us.  I enjoyed both of them.

Then it was just a short walk out the entrance of joint cave, but not without seeing some pretty cool 12 inch long soda straws.

Overall it was a fun, easy trip, and good for winter caving if you didn't want to get wet.  For all the photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/116396676277007122980/MillerSCaveDecember2011