Cat's Cave, a mysterious journey to a secret cave

[zippetydude]

Kids are wonderful, in part because they see the world from a different perspective than adults. I had hiked this area perhaps 10 times before bringing my daughter Cassandra (aka Cat). She is an explorer and adventurer, so when she asked if she could climb up on some rocks that I had climbed past several times, I said "Sure, let me know if you find anything interesting!" A minute later she called to me and said she had found a hidden cave. Hmmm. "You mean a hole in a rock?" "No Dad, I know what a cave is. This is bigger than just a hole in a rock!" So I went over to investigate, and I was amazed. Now before I show you what she found, let me say this is kind of a mysterious area with strange views and odd formations. On the way up to the cave, the view looking up the hill was most unusual:

DSCN9935 by zippetydude, on Flickr

with strange boulder fields...note the odd rock formation on the left, it's approximately 25' high:

DSCN9931 by zippetydude, on Flickr

I climbed inside the cave of sorts...here is a nice view looking back out of the cave:

DSCN9917 by zippetydude, on Flickr

and another from a slightly different perspective:

DSCN9916 by zippetydude, on Flickr

A window in the cave (the overexposed portion in the middle of this picture) has a surprising view...but first, here's the window:

DSCN9912 by zippetydude, on Flickr

Okay, so it's bright outside and my camera couldn't adapt to make the view from the window visible until I zoomed it in to take in only what you can see looking out the window. Here's the view:

DSCN9914 by zippetydude, on Flickr

The entrance to another cave! Wow, what an interesting area! So, anyway, after much adieu, here's what the inside of the cave looks like. It's maybe 12 feet high by 10 feet across:

DSCN9905 by zippetydude, on Flickr

You can actually stand up and move around in there. There's a column in the middle, and you can climb up and around it and come out up on top if you like. Here's a slightly different picture:

DSCN9904 by zippetydude, on Flickr

I have a video tour of the cave, but I don't know how to upload videos to You Tube. You can try viewing it in Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/zippetydu ... otostream/

Anyway, it's a grand adventure and I'll be happy take you to see it if you promise to keep it on the DL. Don't want idiots with pink duct tape or spray paint to ruin it, but it's a treasure that should be shared with others who love this area and would enjoy the adventure. Especially if you have kids, it's not an overly long hike and there's no trail, pure xc adventure, so young people love the rock hopping and roaming around. HJ, Joyce might like this! Cynthia, unless I'm mistaken I seem to remember that you have some boys at home who might like to explore this phenomenon. Even if you don't have small people, I know quite a few on this board who might like to make the trip! Anyway, lmk if you'd like to go see it.

z

[Robert Hunt]

Great pictures, great story, great find, great name, & a great way to share it! Reminds me of the Jacumba/Valley of the Moon area southwest of Anza Borrego.

[cynthia23]

Wow, Zip, that is amazingly cool! Aside from being such an interesting shape, that cave is amazingly clean! It looks like a sea cave. I wonder what formed it?

[zippetydude]

It had to be Aeolian erosion. There's no water up there in the form of rivers, etc. Just wind and swirling dust and sand. Amazing what that can do over time. It's almost always crazy windy up there, so go figure!

z

[Ellen]

Howdy Z

Absolutely gorgeous -- thanks for sharing

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[Hikin_Jim]

Pretty cool, Zip, and a great time of year to explore that area.

And ya gotta love the views over there.


HJ

[tinaja22]

This looks amazing!!

[zippetydude]

I really have a hard time picturing how nothing more than wind could possibly have carved all this. Even given thousands of years, it's just incredible to me.

z

[tekewin]

Awesome find! From the title, I thought you had gone back to that mountain lion cave by Onion Rock. Thanks for the report.

[tallkan]

Zippetydude,
My girls would love to explore this place. That cave looks amazing. We are planning to explore bouldering options up there soon, as we are new climbers, and it would be really cool to check this place out. On Facebook you can find me by the name Adan Lopez and @tallkan on Instagram, in case you use those and you're wondering who the heck I am. You can put a face to the name anyway. I've lurked here and other forums for years now and always enjoy your posts. Oh and nice to meet everyone! Happy 2015!

Adan
Tallkan