Headwall Cave

Headwall Cave

Alan Cressler, Brandon Stephens, Jeff Moore, Greg Huston

Alan and I bushwhacked further up the hill losing Brandon, Greg, and Jeff. Alan and I waited near the belly crawl entrance and soon bo’d them in. They’d gone over the ridge top out of Bo range. Alan entered the cave and paused because the continuation wasn’t obvious. To the right a tight belly crawl followed the right wall. To the left a tight belly crawl ascended the slope. I went right and Alan went left. After 2 body lengths the belly crawl opened into a conjoining crawlway that ascended the slope. I could see larger cave above which I conveyed to Alan. I made my way into a 12’ h x 20’ l x 8’ w standing room. The drone of hundreds of flies was quite evident. There were many spiders as well on the stark white walls. I climbed up to the right into an upward sloping room. A tight drop down brought me into a small pocket to the right. Above the room sloped upwards funneling into a body size crawl. Ahead, a short crawl led to a formation squeeze. Formations hung from the ceiling on the other side to the right. Above and to the left, the passage dead ended in a small room. Down a small slope to the right, the passage also ended. Back at the standing room, Alan and I watched Jeff, Brandon, and Greg squeeze up the belly ascent then I slid back down the tight slope and contorted around some rocks into the small entrance area. I could see our gear laying in the sun through the right-skewed, slot entrance. I climbed above to a forested limestone overlook while waiting on the others to emerge. As we hiked back down the mountain, we saw a Mexican Spotted Owl. We walked down a ravine until we got to an illegal trail which led into the main trail. There was a lot of trash where the water in the stream backed up. On the drive back we stopped to take a couple sun set pictures.

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Headwall Cave

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