An interesting sinkhole with an apparent cave passage at the bottom of a rubble pile — a collapsed sink with a vertical entrance. Didn't have ropes so couldn't get into the cave, but it's clearly been attempted before by others. Doesn't appear to have extensive passage but worth a return trip properly equipped. Located on an alluvial fan just outside Death Valley National Park.

Laying my head to rest after a day of hauling packs down 350 meters of rebelays, Y-hangs, and famous traverse lines in the tight corridors of the 'Torture Chamber.' At potato mix dinner at Camp 1.5, eyes heavy as the body settled into a mud-packed corner shelf. The darkness of deep cave is absolute — no visual reference, no light, no bearing on time. Cave camping is not a merit of honor for the elite but a luxury that reinforces purpose and commitment while allowing time at t

Tanner Wash is a Marble Canyon canyoneering route that can be combined with adjacent canyons for a day trip or multi-day adventure. Park on Navajo Nation land and get the required Navajo Nation permits before heading into Grand Canyon territory. With Andy Orr. Small, narrow slot passage before opening into the wider Marble Canyon drainage.

Heading down the desolate Nevada basins to Uhalde Pit with Dan Straley. Met with Doug Powell from the Forest Service to check out this pit together. The entrance corkscrews around boxwork and mammillary formations — quite interesting geology. The existing map showed ~113ft depth but appears off, so Laura will create a new survey map. Camera batteries failed mid-trip so photo coverage was limited. Photos by Dan Straley and Doug Powell.

All photos by Chris Higgins (@chrishigginsphoto). Nita N'JOU and Nita Nido are two caves that connect into a massive room called the TAG Shaft — 495ft deep — just above the La Grieta section of Sistema Huautla. It had been 35 years since a team entered this system; among our team were the original explorers. We found a fault within the wall at the bottom that takes water from two sides and sucks air into unknown depths. Survey data shows this system is only 600ft above the L

From the top of the desolate Funeral Mountain Range, views of the Amargosa Valley basin brought the most incredible Death Valley National Park scenery I'd seen. We descended where life-bearing water has flowed for millions of years — over a tiered 350 million-year-old limestone rock wall of about 750ft — our first descent. Scott Swaney and I had been talking about a possible cave lead in Cyclops Canyon. This trip also offered a chance to meet a legendary canyoneer who has pio

Towering over the horizon west of Las Vegas is the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area — beautiful limestone and sandstone with world-class climbing, hiking, and canyoneering. Justin Thompson had experience canyoneering but his brother Asher was keen to go for his first canyon. We headed up the trail to the top of the range and looked down into Mud Spring Canyon. Quite hot but we worked down to the head and made our first drops.

Towering over the horizon west of Las Vegas is the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area — beautiful limestone and sandstone with world-class climbing, hiking, and canyoneering. Old Bill Canyon is one of the routes within the towering walls that rival Zion. With James Edwards and Kelly Mathis.

After a ridge walk in the White Pine Range we headed down past Lund onto another basin where numerous springs seep from the ground. Hot Creek Hot Spring was our next stop. We camped near the head of the spring, hard to spot at night in the dead grass. Morning revealed we were on the opposite side, but with plenty of access points. The spring is 85-degree water, ~20ft deep. I swam down and found a limestone crack in the bedding with tumbling sand from water pressure — likely c

Charlie's Folly Cave is a beautiful multi-drop cave system in the southwest desert. Charlie Walsh found it going into holes without ropes. California cavers discovered and surveyed it in the 1970s with a profile map. Locals apparently also know about it and have visited recently. The cave reaches 234ft deep but the profile did not do the system justice. A nice trunk passage at the bottom of the 100ft sloping drop with a gallery in the back corner, quite large. Found another i

There are places that are indescribable where any attempt to explain their beauty is a mere fallacy to their existence. Other places can't be mentioned because of the precious and rare content that must be protected at great sacrifice. This cave has both. It is heavily guarded — that is all I can say about this one. Browsing through the forests of columns and crystals that have peeled off the walls, I could feel the excitement the original explorers must have had. This cave w

Timing the weather right in a potentially hostile environment can be like threading a needle. Mormon Mountain Cave is a hidden gem in Nevada's Mormon Range — a lot of desert southwest caves have been damaged by mining or artifact harvesting, but this cave has protection from its general secrecy, remote environment, and difficult approach. The Southern Nevada Grotto organized a trip to finally map and photograph the cave. It had been visited only 5 times before this trip.

Trumpet Cave was the last cave visited in the area. Young coyotes were at the entrance so I did not want to disturb their habitat by entering. Jason headed in briefly — the cave only goes back about 50ft and ends. I checked some higher leads above that turned out to be nothing. A small but interesting cave to document for the area.

The Nevada desert has many secrets, including secrets of historic significance. Caves were used as storage facilities by miners — equipment was kept and sometimes left behind forever. Dynamite Cave is a small ~100ft cave in a remote Nevada range. The cave held 100-year-old dynamite that was 'sweating' — nitroglycerin seeping out of the shell. This is potentially dangerous as the smallest spark or impact could trigger an explosion. The dynamite was removed before someone got h

After checking the range we headed to three caves called Powder, Cloud, and Lois. These caves are close together — another indication they may share hydrothermal association with weakness pockets created when hydrothermal speleogenesis was active. Powder Cave is properly named: enter the cave and there are 4 inches of talc-like powder on the ground. Jason and I pushed an additional passage that opened into a small room with different-colored walls and ceiling from hydrotherma

Waterholes Canyon is a famous Navajo Nation drainage in northern Arizona near Page. Lower Waterholes is a 4BIII requiring technical canyoneering competence and a pack raft — the canyon exits to the Colorado River and you float 4 miles downstream to Lee's Ferry. Permits required from the Navajo Nation recreational center in Page for both upper and lower. Leave a shuttle car at Lee's Ferry (don't leave the keys in the top car — ask Chris). Team: Chris, Daniel, Gokcen, Peter Bus

James and Tena reached out after I spent a long day working with the Red Rock Search and Rescue agency. We decided to head up to Mt. Charleston and check out Little Falls Canyon. A nice short hike to a beautiful desert waterfall — a perfect easy evening after a long work day. Photos by James Edwards.

Walker Gulch is rated 3AII and connects with Orderville Gulch. This canyon is technically not within the park boundary so no permits are needed to visit. After Fat Man's Misery, Andy and I headed to camp to prepare for the following day's run through Walker Gulch. Joined by John Cantrall and Alexa. A seldom-visited canyon with a lot of the luster of the traditional Zion Narrows but without the crowds.

Eagle Sink is a limestone sinkhole collapse on BLM land in Utah. The pit is around 80ft on the low side and about 160ft from the high side. At the bottom is a depression with a large amount of breakdown with no going passages. A rock cairn from a previous visit marks the bottom. The rock is very brittle and dangerous near the edges — do not get too close. I came solo as my group had incidents along the way, so I enjoyed this place with birds flying in and out of the sink and

Cathedral Cave is a Nevada cave that exceeded expectations — a short hike to a large entrance leads into mostly walking passage with abundant decorations throughout. Junctions lead left and right into gallery passages with wall formations and column formations at the corners. Continuing up into a tighter section, the passage opens into a highly decorated room full of formations and an interesting flowstone structure. The main corridors show no signs of human use for quite som