Butler Cave & Owl Cave- 3/16/2025
Casey Tucker Reporting
Following busy and exciting digging projects on Saturday around the Burnsville Cove, 12 of us descended into Butler Cave on Sunday morning, March 16th. We made the long walk (1-2 minutes) from the parking lot in a light rain and entered the cave around 11 am. The SOFA entrance to Butler is a large culvert that puts you directly in walking passage.
We made our way towards the main trunk passage in Sand Canyon with a quick stop to view rimstone dams along the way. From Sand Canyon we headed downstream through big cave to find Sinking Creek. Through the massive Eye of the Needle Room and up a small infeedeer to see the Moon Room and the Hanging Dong. The Moon Room is a large, long room with a floor covered almost entirely in calcite. Drill holes dot the floor from drippy formations above. Around the corner from the Moon Room the Hanging Dong looks over a small infeeder. The Hanging Dong is probably the largest formation in the cave.
Back to Sinking Creek where we continued downstream. That creek leaves the main trunk to re-emerge in other sections of the cave. We crawled through the dry sumps, which are old lift tubes that broke through a sandstone layer. After those crawls we were back in walking passage and into Sneaky Creek which starts at The Showers. We spotted a few salamanders in this section of cave and then entered the French Passage, another highly decorated area of the cave. We “oohed” and “ahhed” at the formations. No one minded that we were wet up to our knees.
95 percent of the passage we travelled through was big walking passage. Butler is a spectacular cave to visit. While we mostly did a walking tour, there are 18 miles of cave to explore that can include crawling, vertical, scrambling, swimming, wading, etc. It offers incredible variety and so much beauty! We are lucky to have it so close to us. Butler Cave is also on the National Natural Landmarks register.
We exited the cave to warm, dry weather at 3pm, making for a 4 hour trip. We expected rain & thunderstorms but were pleasantly surprised. The storm held off long enough for everyone to change and get on the road.
Trip participants included me, Harriet, Melanie, Tim, Josie, Tim, Karl, Margo, Julia, Brooke, Katie, & Aidan.
If you want to see more photos check out the google alum https://photos.app.goo.gl/YdM1Zj42SSo1UWft9
Another set of people also visited Owl Cave and the Water Sinks at the same time. They had a great time, but there is no trip report.
