Spring Cave is a large, not completely explored

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

in the White River National Forest, in the South Fork Valley of the White River, that has been largely cut out by an underground

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

running through it. It contains a

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

several hundred meters inside as well as several caverns only accessible through

underwater diving Underwater diving, as a human activity, is the practice of descending below the water's surface to interact with the environment. It is also often referred to as diving (disambiguation), diving, an ambiguous term with several possible meani ...

. The cave is free to explore.

Cave layout

There are two entrances to the cave, both at the end of Spring Cave Trail. Most visitors prefer the nearest entrance, an over-two-meter-high passageway. From there one descends through several rooms leading to a permanent ladder, followed by more rooms leading to the river. It is the largest river inside a cave in Colorado. The level of the river rises and falls throughout the year, and can even rise to the level of the cave entrance on rare occasions. There are several series of rooms above and past the river, a few of which lead to an underground lake. Past the lake lie several sumps which must be passed through diving. The full extent of the cavern and underground waterways in it is still not completely known.

Cave closure

Spring Cave was closed to public access or use due to white nose syndrome, a fungal disease that is devastating

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

populations in the United States and Canada. Spring Cave may now be visited April 16 through August 14, by persons who have registered and observed decontamination procedures. It is closed August 15 - April 15.

References

External links

*Big Daddy Maps
Spring Cave
directions, maps, and safety information.
South Fork CampgroundU.S. Department of Agriculture Information on the Cave
* {{Coord, 39.86001, -107.53845, format=dms, display=title, type:landmark_region:US-CO Caves of Colorado Landforms of Rio Blanco County, Colorado