Storm Drain Caves
This small redneck town was too lazy to build themselves a storm sewer system, so they simply installed pipes and gutterboxes directly into the natural caves underlying the town. It's enough to make real cavers cry to see beer cans floating past and plastic bags wrapped around stalactites, but the town solves that problem by keeping cavers out. The cave is quite large and has walking height passages for much of its extent below town, smaller crawlways lead off in different directions to drain inlets, and we never did figure out where the eventual outfall might be. We failed to follow the cave past a point where the stream got deep and the mud got slippery, but the main passage was 20-30ft high and about 10ft wide for probably a quarter mile of twists and turns. I'm being deliberately vauge due to the sensitivity of natural caves to vandalism and mistreatment, a few smaller sections have already seen the wrath of local idiots with spray cans and bongs. Fortunately the average jackass can only get into small sections of cave, and the main passages appear accessible only to those dedicated enough to find a way in.
This is actually one of the first natural caves I've explored (well,
the first of any real size). The crawl passages were interesting, but the
large open hallways and rooms with stalactites and formations were really
cool. I failed to get any good photos of the cave, but a talented photographer
could probably spend several days here (hint to all the Twin Cities UE
photo nerds, get your rears on the next MO roadtrip or contact me for info!).
Draincave wildlife included salamanders, crayfish, frogs, and Jim.
I think Jim was hoping the frog would turn into a beautiful prince.