Whirlpool Cave

Dates: Mar. 18-19, 2023

Crew: Ben H., Sean, Yisha, Kai, Monica, Ben W.

Locations: Whirlpool Cave Preserve, Monster Rock, Pace Bend Park

Deep in the Heart of Texas

Keeping the ball rolling from my trips to Mammoth Cave and Carlsbad Caverns, we set off to Whirlpool Cave, a small cave 40 feet beneath Austin, TX and holding the largest room in Travis County. Monica's roommate Kai had started doing activities with the Texas Cave Management Association, which protects and preserves many public and privately owned caves mostly in hill country, and was offered the chance to get a guided trip through Whirlpool by the cave's manager Liz. Setting off in two cars early on Saturday morning, we aimed to get to the cave at noon. When Ben, Yisha, Sean, and I got there a bit early we found a breakfast taco truck to camp out at and enjoy the chilly morning air. 

Meeting Liz at the cave, we geared up: helmets, long sleeves and pants, gloves, kneepads, elbow pads, headlamps, and at least 2 more light sources. Nobody wants to get scratched up, bruised, or stuck in the dark! We were warned ahead of time to expect a lot of crawling, to get very dirty, and to be comfortable with tight and dark spaces. We made the short hike under the nearby overpass to the cave, seeing all the evidence of the floodwaters that can surge into and through the cave when it rains, with the water eventually reaching the aquifer that sources many of the springs throughout the area. There was a sad amount of litter left behind from the floodwaters, and branches, trees, rocks, and debris of all kinds. The entrance was protected with an iron cage to keep trespassers out. Liz unlocked it and one by one we descended an iron-rung ladder down into the entrance chamber of the cave.

The cave started with a helical passage that required us to go feet first and corkscrew our bodies downwards. At the base of the corkscrew the cave went from the roominess of the entrance chamber to a 2-3 foot high area that required the constant kneeling and crawling to begin. I was very glad for my $5 harbor freight kneepads at this point. Liz pointed out cave crickets wandering along on the ceiling- pale insects with very long legs, going about their business in the total darkness. I was surprised to find them cute, not horrifying (if they were cave spiders, might have been a different story).

As we gradually went down and down, the temperature and humidity in the cave rose subtly. Most caves I've been in have sat somewhere around 55 degrees, but Whirlpool was about 75 degrees. In the long sleeves and hoodie, I heated up quickly, but had to keep them on to prevent getting shredded like cheese on a grater in the rocky soil.

Finally, we reached the big room, the largest room in any cave in Travis County. Liz had some fun challenges for us to try here, including the "sleeping bag," a small pocket in the floor barely large enough to squirm into. The challenge was to go in headfirst, get your entire body inside, swing your legs around, and exit headfirst out of the sleeping bag. We all gave it a go, trying to do it as fast as possible. Another challenge was to follow a small passage that narrowed and narrowed, until we were squirming through darkness at the end and found it emerged right back into the big room- it had looped around. Finally, we all turned off our lights and enjoyed the stifling darkness. After a while your brain thinks your eyes have adjusted and you start seeing shadows and shapes where there are none.

Then it was time for the really fun part- the birth canal. This is the tightest passage in the cave, with barely enough room to lift your helmeted head to look forward, and you have to really put a full-body effort in to make forward progress. One at a time we went through, following the dusty tennis shoes of the person in front of us.

Views in the big room.

Crawling through the birth canal, we emerged into the Ant Lion room. It was a tight squeeze indeed- for the most part I was able to squirm along as normal, but for the last 10-15 feet I had no choice but to raise my arms overhead and inch myself forward with my outstretched hands and toe pushes. As my arms emerged from the passage I was able to grab the walls and pull to forcibly extract the rest of my body. It didn't feel claustrophobic but I did have a bit of surprise looking back at how tiny the entrance was once I was stretching out to enjoy the Ant Lion room! After we all had gone through, we were able to poke our heads up into a roof chamber filled with formations that glittered in the light of my headlamp. This was as far as we would go, and the heat and humidity in this cramped chamber was the most apparent it had been yet.

The birth canal in reverse was actually a little harder for me than it was on the way in. Emerging at the other end covered in dust and victim of numerous head bonks (thanks helmet!) I joined the conga line of crawling again and we exited the main room. We also had a choice to take the way we came or an alternate route which was tighter and likely wetter- usually this lower passage had standing water at the bottom we were told. We chose this way, of course. I took it as a challenge to stay as dry as possible and held myself up on my toes and fingers, doing an extended pushup/low plank shuffle the whole way through and keeping the water contained to only my knees and toes. Success! Then we were out the passages filled with crickets, up the corkscrew, and at the ladder back to daylight again.

Amazingly, the air above was cooler and drier than the cave and it was a relief to be back out. We were all hungry now, and decided the other car needed to be shown the wonders of the taco truck. Still wearing our dirty clothes, we returned for a feast.

Monster Rock is in the House Tonight

(Everybody just have a good time). After crushing even more taco truck tacos, we went climbing! Monster rock is a super cool crag that I hadn't had a chance to visit before. A member of the Austin climbing community had bought a plot of land on the Pedernales river between two other houses, and instead of developing it, turned it into a publicly accessible crag. The backyard faces the river, with a 50 foot drop down to it, and overhanging limestone cliffs forming a small island and a trench of sorts, creating 3 perfect walls for climbing! We took the rickety staircase and bolted-down ladders to the base of the cliff and started setting up to climb. At this point I realized my climbing bag had a harness in it, but no shoes or chalk! I grabbed the wrong bag. Oh well, nothing to do but climb barefoot! I led some 5.8 and 5.9 routes to put up the rope for the other climbers who wanted to top-rope. It was fun, but a little painful and cold.

Then we went to beautiful Pace Bend Park to camp for the night, make a fire and s'mores, and enjoy the crisp air and glorious sunset over the lake that surrounds the park.

The next morning we had a delicious pancake breakfast and drove back to Houston, taking stops along the way to marvel at the fields upon fields of wildflowers that graced the highway. They were in full bloom, including the state flower bluebonnets which contrasted the red, yellow, and pink of most of the flowers.

Hill country wildflowers in full show!

A good weekend! I made a note by the end of it to visit some of the other caves tucked away in the lone star state. Hill country continues to reveal surprises to keep the weekend warrior entertained.