Mammoth Cave

So, down here in Cedar City we are less than 2 hours away from, I think, 12 National and State parks. Also, we have access to hundreds of thousands of public recreation areas. One of those is Mammoth Cave in the Dixie National Forest. So, on Thursday for my Outdoor Recreation class we went up to Mammoth Cave for an intro to the National Forest Service. It was seriously the coolest thing I have ever done, and that is thanks majorly in part to to of my new friends Nia and Cody.

Left to right, me, Nia, Ericka (the other girl who came with us in the small cave) and Cody.
Nia and I started talking our 2nd Outdoor Rec class and we're good friends already. Cody, on the other hand I wouldn't have called a friend before we went through the cave and now, he's friend status for sure. Thats how epic our cave experience was. So first we all went through as a class, (about 40 people) and it was super fun. It was dark, and the ground was rocky and slippery and I almost fell like 500 times but it was great.

(This is Nia in the first cave.)

One of the most amazing things about caves is that they are one of the two places where you can experience complete darkness. (The other is the bottom of the ocean.) When we got far enough into the cave we stopped turned off all our lights and just sat there, no talking allowed, for like five minutes. It was one of the most eye opening five minutes of my life. I was able to just let go everything that had been happening and relax and enjoy the pressing darkness. Because there was nothing to see and nothing to hear I was able to just stop thinking. It was beautiful.

At the end of the big cave we had to crawl over and under and through rocks for like 3-5 minutes to get to the exit. That was the best part.

After we got out of the main cave that we went through as a class we had some time to explore by ourselves. Cody jumped right down into a hole and took off. Turns out he lives in this area and has been up to the caves before. He showed us a smaller tunnel that went all the way along the top of the tunnel we had just gone through and exited just like 20 feet farther away. We crawled about 70% on our hands and knees, 25% on our stomachs and 5% we could crouch and walk bent over.

At a couple points we had to crawl through tiny holes (see above) and i honestly was almost afraid of getting stuck at one point but it was awesome. We were all joking and talking and supporting each other, seriously, it was amazing

The exit of the small cave.

All in all, BEST CLASS EVER.