Great Basin National Park is filled with caves. Besides the well known
Lehman Caves, the park has over 31 (or 32 depending on what you read)
known wild caves. The park now has four more, found by the ridgewalking
efforts of cave crew, Krupa Patel, Ryan Shurtz and myself, Shylo Johnson,
over the last few months. These four caves are Rockfall Cave, Chamber
Cave, High Hole, and Mystery Cave.
Each time a new cave is found, we hope that it will be a second
Lehman--a large decorated cave. Of the four caves, we have already
surveyed Rockfall Cave and know that it ends after 50ft. For the
other three caves, each has a dark zone, but only one cave, Mystery
Cave, appears to still extend beyond what we have seen. Chamber
Cave was a large chamber roughly 40ft x 20ft x 30ft high and High
Hole appeared to end after 30ft. Mystery Cave went back about 25ft
before we reached unnatural blockage; stones had been stacked in
the passageway. Additionally, we felt a cool breeze indicating passage
beyond. A future endeavor will consist of surveying these new caves
to learn if they extend beyond what we know, but most likely the
search for the second Lehman will have to continue.
Shylo Johnson worked on the cave crew this summer.
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