Leslie and David's Wanderings: 1 – 3 July 2023 Timpanogos Cave NM

One of our primary reasons for coming to Provo was to visit the Timpanogos Cave National Monument. It’s actually three caves, Hansen Cave, Middle Cave and Timpanogos Cave all tied together by manmade tunnels. The Hansen cave was discovered in 1887, and the other two were discovered in 1921. The caves are located high up on Timpanogos Mountain. The Trail to the cave entrance climbs 1080 feet in 1.5 miles. Before we arrived in Provo, we got on the website to reserve a tour but were surprised to find they were sold out through the entire time we were going to be in Provo. On Friday, we drove up to the NM to at least see the visitor center and check if there were any cancellations. After exploring the visitor center and collecting our passport stamp, we talked with the rangers and were told the reservation website had the same information they had for any cancellations. Disappointed, we decided to drive up into Provo Canyon on SR92 and then drop down into Sundance before heading back to the Wanderer. The views climbing up Provo Canyon were beautiful but the road is a bit narrow for the Behemoth. We spent the time getting the Wanderer and Behemoth cleaned inside and out. David kept checking the website and we got lucky and snagged two tickets from a cancelation on the 3^rd. The ticket gives you the time you should leave the visitor center in order to reach the entrance at the desired time. We arrived 15 minutes early since we knew we would need some extra time given the steepness of the trail. After our safety briefing about falling rocks (and yes we saw rocks fall while we were on the trail) we started the trudge to the entrance. Fortunately, it was midmorning and the temperatures were pretty comfortable. There were a lot of fitness folks hiking the trail as well. As we were climbing, we could see storms building in the valley below and starting to head toward us. We were encouraged to see much younger people than us huffing and puffing on the trail as well! The last half mile is the steepest with over 400 feet of altitude gain. As we came within sight of the entrance, our energy was flagging. Then there was a loud clap of thunder overhead, and the thought of being on that exposed trail with lightening around gave us a renewed burst of energy! We almost sprinted to the shelter at the entrance! We had no time to rest before they pushed us into the cave entrance and closed the door. The temperature dropped immediately from the warm 75 degrees outside to 45 degrees inside. So, we pulled out our sweat shirts and bundled up our sweaty bodies. After that climb up, we had high expectations for this cave system. We spent about an hour following our ranger guides through the cave system. There was more climbing up and down stairs and squeezing around rocks trying not to touch anything. We were really not impressed overall. Part of Hansen Cave had been mined early on. The other formations were typical of caves and not as nice as we have seen in other caves. The one new thing is Helictites, which we had not seen before in other caves. With all the stooping, climbing up and down and around inside the caves in addition to the climb up, we were feeling the exertion! After we exit the caves, we were unhappy to find that we had to climb even more to get back to the trail to head down! The walk down was almost as tiring as the walk up and we ran out of water about half way down (Total:3.55 miles, 1457 feet of altitude gain, 1156 calories burned). All in all, a fun day, but the cave was not worth the effort compared to the many others in the NPS system. However, as we were driving out traffic stopped as a momma big horn and her baby walked toward us on the road. Realizing traffic was building they jumped up the embankment and disappeared. Now that was worth it!