Stephens Gap Callahan Cave Preserve
Last week I took my parents on a hike to a local cave. I had never heard of it until recently when I saw a picture of it on an Instagram account I follow, and I immediately knew I needed to check it out. When I saw that it’s only 40 minutes away I checked the forecast to see when the best day would be to go. Then I went online to get a free permit since the location is on private property. I convinced my parents to join me and it was good for all of us to get out of the house and be active. The sun was shining but it was in the 40s so we layered up. I dressed the part with overalls and a plaid wool jacket I thrifted, coupled with my hat and I felt like I looked like a park ranger.
The hike started easy enough, we passed two other folks heading out and they were the only ones we saw. We came upon a pit in the ground and I thought that was the cave, but we still had further to go. The terrain got rocky and we started to go uphill, but my parent’s were good sports and kept going. Once we heard the waterfall we knew we were close. The water fell down into a big pit but we could not see the bottom when peering in, safely of course. And that’s the spot where folks rappel down into the cave from. If only I knew how to do that-it would be epic! But I knew from reading about the area that there was a walk-in passage that would take me into the cave but not all the way to the bottom. I saw a large opening filled with boulders and figured that had to be the entrance. It was slippery in parts due to water dripping from the ceiling of the cave so I went solo down as far as I deemed safe. I was rewarded with an amazing view of the waterfall and blowout pouring into the cave. Plus with the sunlight coming through the hole it was a great shot. They say to take helmets with chinstraps even if you’re going in the walk-in passage and the only ones we had were bike helmets so I felt a little silly when I was hiking down. I climbed back up and we all headed back to the car just under a mile away.
It’s a relatively short hike but I wouldn’t say it’s super easy since there is some boulder-y terrain. But the view in the cave is definitely worth it. I’d love to see it with snow and also in the summer. And of course I would love to rappel down into it.
This is a YouTube video I made from the trip.