June 4, 1999 - White Mountain Cave, Nevada
The grotto left from Steve and Kristine's house on 29 May at 7:30am in an attempt to locate White Mountain Cave. The group consisted of Steve D., Kristine D., Tony W., Shannon W., Ed G., Claire J., and Geoffrey F. The road trip to the cave consisted of two and one-half hours of highway driving and one and one-half hours of serious off road action (probably the most fun of the hole trip). The cave is located approximately five miles north of Whipple Cave on the west mountain range of Cave Valley. The jeep trail that we used to get into the area was mostly dry except the last few miles. The last section of the trail turned muddy in one spot due to a small stream draining from a spring. The other obstacles on the jeep trail consist of range cattle and two river bed crossings. There was only one casualty to the off road trail. Steve and Kristine's 4-runner received minor damage to the bumper attempting to cross one of the riverbeds. We made camp in a small clearing on the east side of the jeep trail. The only problem with our camping site was that it was filled with land mines (cow pies) that had to be cleared to set up the tents. It ended up taking us until 6:00pm to finish setting up camp so we decided to have dinner and settle in for the night.
Everyone was awaken by the peaceful sound of screaming babies crying for breakfast at about 5:30am Sunday morning. Steve and Kristine's twins made a very affective alarm clock. After breakfast we set out to find the cave while Kristine stayed in camp with the twins. The area that we searched was abundant with limestone rock and from a distance what looked to be leads that could be pushed. After spending half a day searching the mountain side most of the leads that where spotted we found to be just shelter caves. One lead that we did find was only thirty feet long and had a few cave formations. We decided that this small cave is White Mountain Cave but further searches in the area might reveal another cave. Ed, Claire, and Geoffrey packed up and left for home around 3:00pm that Sunday. The rest of us stayed until Monday. We packed up camp early on Monday morning and headed for home around 9:00am. On the way out we sited two Elk which ran in front of the vehicles giving use a close up view of these wonderful animals. We believe that we found White Mountain Cave but there is a small voice in the back of my head that tells me to keep looking.
Trip reporter: Steve L. Deveny
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