Moaning Cavern Adventure Trip Crawl, California

#globalite Vane ventures into a cave!  #travelthursday #caves

Moaning cavern is the California’s largest public cave chamber. It holds the largest vertical chamber, which the website claims can hold the entire Statue of Liberty!

They offer 3 different tours.
1. Guided walking tour suitable for the entire family.
2. 165 foot rope rappel into the cave
3. Challenging 3 hour caving experience that starts with rope rappel.

This was my first caving experience and I wasn’t sure what I was getting into but brave enough to pick the adventure trip. The caving started with 165 foot rope rappel. How much you weigh is very important because the device attached to the rope decides when to tighten or loosen the rope and it works much better if you are heavy. I weighed only 110 lbs. and the device was working the opposite way. I had to use all my arm strength and by the time I completed, my arms were exhausted. Wait… the caving itself hasn’t begun yet!

Now we are venturing into the deepest and darkest passages of the cave with just a small light on our helmet. For next 2 hours we are crawling and squeezing ourselves out of the tiniest chambers. In the end is the hardest climb where you have to pull yourself up using the rope through a tight hole that is much smaller than a chimney. I was surprised I completed the caving because it required tremendous amount of upper body strength, which I wasn’t prepared for.

In the end, I enjoyed the adventure and was happy to see the sunlight!