Maquoketa Caves, Iowa

Well I hurt my knee and then worked to hard on it so I had to skip a trip to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky and then John took off with the Jeep to Wisconson and I was getting mighty bored fast.

I decided to head to Iowa since I knew someone in Davenport and then looked for a park to visit since I knew climbing wouldn't be that easy to find. I found the Maquoketa Caves park on the internet and decided it looked like fun so off I went!

The drive took about 3 hours to Davenport thanks to traffic from Chicago. Also I was driving one of my roomates vehicles so that made it faster then the Jeep would have done! My friend never answered so I took off to the park and got there a few hours before dark. I wandered through some of the caves taking some pictures. After a night of restless sleep in a walmart parking lot because I am too cheap to pay for campsites I got up and drove to the park. I had the whole park to myself for hours as I spent atleast 3 hours without hearing another person. It really is a beautiful place and shocked me a bit because I didn't expect something of its nature to be in Iowa. The caves were quite fun as some of them had lighting and most you had to crawl around in with a flashlight!

After soaking up the last bit of energy I could from the trees I headed home. I never did meet up with my friend but I think I got enough green to help me through the week.

This is an unedited shot I took within a small slot. There was some fun crawling around to do!

There was one large cave that was lighted called the Dancehall Cave.

Some were slim and required a flashlight.

This is where the ranger gets to live.

A view from the Dancehall Cave

Another view from a cave. I had the whole place to myself for hours.