New Instructional Book Now Available
I have also produced a very good guide for beginning to intermediate cavers that covers all of this material in much greater detail than a website could. The book can be found by following this link or by clicking the book cover below.
What is Cave Exploring?
Cave exploring (also known as caving or spelunking) is the art of safely moving through a natural cave to a destination and returning to the surface without hurting yourself or the cave. There is no way to learn how to explore caves without getting out of the house and getting underground, but you can learn where to go, who to contact, and what skills you need. That is the purpose of this site.
This website contains areas for those just getting started in caving, students wanting to learn more about caves, and teachers who want to integrate cave-related information into their curriculum. In some cases the information is located on this site, and in others, I have linked to other websites that have good information. I have also provided links to informative videos that can provide more visual information. These videos have been personally vetted to make sure there isn’t any information that may show unsafe practices or would harm cave resources.
The one thing you will not find on this site is locations of undeveloped caves; this is to protect them from vandalism and protect people from getting hurt.
Please explore this site and let me know in the comments section if there are additional resources or features you would like to see on this site. For now, I will leave you with the basic rules of caving:
The Three Basic Rules of Cave Exploring
Take Nothing but Pictures – leave everything the way you found it so others can appreciate the cave the same way you did.
Leave Nothing but Footprints – Minimize your impact to the cave; do not leave crumbs, trash, and paint in the cave. Even minimize the impacts of your footprints; stick to established trails and be careful to step where those before you have already stepped.
Kill Nothing but Time – You are the visitor to the cave so leave the natural inhabitants alone.