Neff's Canyon Cave

[mcirque]

I'm not really interested in actually going in this cave but I'm curious as to where it is in Neff's canyon. It's like the 10th deepest cave in America and no one that I talk to actually knows how to get to it (or has even heard of it). I would like to take a hike to it sometime and was wondering if anyone knows how to get to it. Thanks

[Scott P]

..

[mcirque]

Thanks. I knew it was gated I've just always heard about this cave but have never been able to find it. I was heading up the main trail looking for it that way. I assumed there would be at least a small unmaintained trail to it. I was just looking in the wrong place. :(

[Alex]

I swear I walked by it 20 times and never paid attention to it. I live about 3 mins from the canyon and hike it a lot! Is this a natural cave or mining? Is there anything cool to explore inside? Who owns the key and what are the reqs for getting the key?

Thank you!

[Alex]

Found my own answers. I can't believe I never heard about this. I lived in the Olympus Cove for over 8 years now and the deepest cave in US is located in my backyard!

http://www.desertusa.com/geofacts/caves.html

Story behind the cave http://www.caves.org/grotto/timpgrotto/Neffs.html

[stefan]

yeah, it's pretty impressive being such deep cave. i have explored it VIRTURALLY through a long series of photos andrew mclean had posted on his website many many moons ago (5+ years?). but i think since he's redone his site(possibly earlier), he's removed access to it (as well as a ton of other stuff). a google search doesn't seem to find it either. if anyone has any good sites with photos, it'd be cool to see it again.

[James_B_Wads2000]

yeah, it's pretty impressive being such deep cave. i have explored it VIRTURALLY through a long series of photos andrew mclean had posted on his website many many moons ago (5+ years?). but i think since he's redone his site(possibly earlier), he's removed access to it (as well as a ton of other stuff). a google search doesn't seem to find it either. if anyone has any good sites with photos, it'd be cool to see it again.

Tom Jones used to have a TR on his latest rave index. http://canyoneeringusa.com/rave/index.htm It was the only photos I had ever come across. I went to find them yesterday and couldn't. I email Tom and this was his reply:

The agreement with the Grotto is that trips to Neff's Cave will not be publicized, so I had to take it down.

It looked like a lot of rappeling just to turn around and jug all the way up.

James

[caverspencer]

Neffs is actually "managed" by the National Park Service, or National Monuments or soemthing like that. They are very very very strick about what can be done i the cave and what can be published about the cave.

Neffs is actually the 7th deepest in the continental united sates. There are some lave tubes that bump it down a few notches but the are in Hawaii, and in my opinion lava tubes dont count. Especially when the oftne have "skylihgts" all throughout the tube and they never make it more than a few feet belwo the surface.

http://www.caverbob.com/usadeep.htm

[stefan]

sorry kazak, you'll have to tone down your braggin' now. no exaggeratin'!!

[Alex]

Wow. I am still impressed at what I have read today, now I have to tell everyone I live by the deepest cave in US

[caverspencer]

Wow. I am still impressed at what I have read today, now I have to tell everyone I live by the deepest cave in US

Well its not the deepest anymore, in fact it is not even the deepest in Utah anymore.

When Neffs was discovered it was the deepest in the US, for several years.

[Iceaxe]

Neffs is actually "managed" by the National Park Service, or National Monuments or soemthing like that. They are very very very strick about what can be done i the cave and what can be published about the cave.

Actually you can publish any damn thing you want to about the cave. There is no law against it.

I get tired of all the bullshit stories about you "can't" publish this or that.... its a scare tactic that I see commonly used in regards to caves and Indian ruins.

Now..... Is it ethical to broadband and spray this type information is a different subject.

[caverspencer]

Neffs is actually "managed" by the National Park Service, or National Monuments or soemthing like that. They are very very very strick about what can be done i the cave and what can be published about the cave.

Actually you can publish any damn thing you want to about the cave. There is no law against it.

I get tired of all the bullshit stories about you "can't" publish this or that.... its a scare tactic that I see commonly used in regards to caves and Indian ruins.

Now..... Is it ethical to broadband and spray this type information is a different subject.

They agreement we have is very strick about what we can and cant do or say about the cave, law or not, that is what the cave management plans states and we must abide to that.

[Iceaxe]

As I mentioned..... a matter of ethics, not law....

Just curious.... is there some place on-line where the cave management plan can be viewed?

[mcirque]

I went hiking around Neff's yesterday. I was over in the vicinity where Scott shows on the topo map. I found what looked like a mine shaft that went in horizontally for some ways but for some reason I don't think this is Neff's Canyon Cave. Does anyone know what this looks like? Is that mine looking tunnel the cave?? I was expecting to see some kind of metal cap or grading on top of a hole in the ground???

[caverspencer]

I went hiking around Neff's yesterday. I was over in the vicinity where Scott shows on the topo map. I found what looked like a mine shaft that went in horizontally for some ways but for some reason I don't think this is Neff's Canyon Cave. Does anyone know what this looks like? Is that mine looking tunnel the cave?? I was expecting to see some kind of metal cap or grading on top of a hole in the ground???

There are a few old mines up that way.

When you find Neffs you will know it. It is exactly as you described. A hole int he ground with a metal grate over it.

[Udink]

I went hiking around Neff's yesterday. I was over in the vicinity where Scott shows on the topo map. I found what looked like a mine shaft that went in horizontally for some ways but for some reason I don't think this is Neff's Canyon Cave. Does anyone know what this looks like? Is that mine looking tunnel the cave?? I was expecting to see some kind of metal cap or grading on top of a hole in the ground???

Neff's is indeed gated, and what you saw was likely just a mine shaft. Just a few feet southeast of the center mark on the map Scott linked to is the USGS map symbol for an adit or mine entrance. I don't believe the cave itself is actually listed on the USGS map (I certainly can't see it on there anywhere).

[mcirque]

I finally got around to finding this cave. I'm attaching some pictures of the cave entrance in a follow up post. I was only able to find it using a GPS. If you have never been there before it would be pretty hard to find unless you had good descriptions of which wash to bushwack up. I found a fairly decent trail about 50 feet before the wash that I followed until it ran out. Then I followed the GPS coordinates over into the wash. On the way down I followed the wash and it was a lot more bushwacking.

A couple other things of note about this cave. It is about 1.5 to 2.0 miles from the Neffs Trailhead to the cave and about 2000 vertical feet of gain. It took me about 45 minutes to find it. You could probably get there a little faster if you already know where it is. Also I read that you can see the cave from the valley from "certain grotto members homes". You definitely can't see the cave rock outcrop or entrance from the valley. If you follow the wash down a ways you could see the valley a little bit.

I also find it extremely interesting that there isn't much known about this cave on the internet, pictures, or accounts of it (even though it is in the top 20 of deepest caves in the US). About the only thing you can find is an account of the first cave explorers from the 1950's. Even then, it's only found on google's cached pages. It seems as though any info about it has been removed or taken down. Here was where the account was supposed to be:

http://www.caves.org/grotto/timpgrotto/Neffs.html

here's where google's copy is:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...ient=firefox-a

Seems to me like cavers or the USFS are pretty tight lipped about this place. Not sure why. It's capped to keep the riff raff out. Too bad since it seems to have some interesting history behind it. If anyone out there has any photos of the inside or cave a map I'd love to see them.

[mcirque]

[Deathcricket]

Fascinating article. This is like the Everest of caves pretty much. I find it odd that people aren't jumping at the chance to be the "first" to explore it. I suspect there was discovered a tribe of Pech and the government is covering it up.