Mieka here, reporting on the first time I've ever wiggled into the proverbial womb of a mountain - spelunking is super fun!
Check out the cave way up in the cliff on the left - our view as Heather, Evan and I hiked in. Wind Cave, Idaho. (Well, the approach is from Idaho...we were technically back in Wyoming once we made it to the cave.)
Approaching the entrance in its yawning awesomeness.... This cave goes all the way through the mountains - you can wiggle for hours through tight sections and tall caverns, rappel down steep wet cliffs and then wade through an underground river to pop out the other side. We made it in to somewhere deep inside past the rappel section and it was awesome.
Intrepid explorers as we were, the (very probably) first ever tutu descent of the wind cave had to be documented:
Heather...
Mieka...
And Evan...
Someday, we'll return with tutu wetsuits and do the whole thing!
Total darkness inside the cave. When our lights were off, there was no perceptible difference between open and closed eyes. The rest of my senses gave me spacial input so my mind tried to convince me I could still see, but I could not. It was quite an amazing experience to be in such darkness.
Wiggling through the tightest sections of the cave. Check out Evan's amazing head first wiggle (you can just see his feet disappearing down the hole) down a particularly steep and twisty section - think wet rocky waterslide. Thank goodness for those helmets!
Re-emerging into the beautiful outside world after many hours inside the cave. Reverence.
Two grizzly bears were foraging in the valley below us.
To avoid a closer encounter, we sang at top volume the entire hike out in the closing dusk.
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