5/13: Clarksville Cave Trip Report

Written by Sabrina Cheng


The cave has a cool entrance because it just looks like a big dent in the ground and you would not have seen the entrance to the cave had you not walked into that dent. Coming up from the trail, you just see a big crater in the ground, but when you go in, you see the cave entrance, neatly tucked into the crater behind its walls. The cave was quite wet when we were there so there were small waterfalls here and there. A small stream ran on the cave's floors so it was really pretty to see that running over the rocks as we explored. There were also a lot of nooks and crannies, some dead ends, and some that led back to the mail trail. There were also pools of water at the end of the trail. At the end of our trip, we found a wide waterfall that was really pretty. It fell into a crevice that was big enough for us to walk in. It got narrower and narrower, so we went until it got too deep. (or is it the last part that got deeper and deeper, and this part got narrower and narrower?) When we got back to the entrance, we decided to explore the entrance a bit more. We had descended into the trail and this time we went the other way and found a pool of water. I was confused for a while because the water was so still and opaque that it perfectly reflected what was above it when I shined my headlamp onto it. I kept thinking that the water was transparent and I was looking beneath the water, admiring the underwater cave structure and wondered how it had not eroded from the water. Because the cave was quite tall, the reflection looked deep and I was afraid to go in. But then Felipe went in and I realized it was a reflection and that the pool was actually not that deep. It was a relief but also kind of sad that it was only a reflection and not a really cool pool of water that was extremely transparent and deep and had cool spiky rocks coming up from the bottom.