Sheep Creek Cave Dive Exploration, Utah

Sheep Creek Cave is a Utah classic cave found in the northeastern portion of Utah. It is quite remote but rather easy to get to once you are in the region. The cave is not very decorated but rather featureless — instead you find almost a mile of passage that you walk, crawl, stoop walk, and climb through. It gets sporty in a few sections and there is a vertical component as well.

The Big Room requires rappelling 40 ft and ascending 60 ft back up to continue. There is a sump at the terminal end of the cave and ever since discovery, questions have been asked about what lies beyond it. Recently some passages opened back up above the sump allowing people to travel deeper.

We had 20 people assist in this dive effort. Paul and Barry set up a high line to trolly gear across the Big Room. Once at the sump, Astro and I donned diving gear in 47°F water. Equipment issues stacked — a leaking first stage, a faulty SPG, and Astro's primary light failed. I made the initial push alone, laying 120 ft of line, surfacing in the PM passage at a gauge depth of 16 ft with 7 ft viz. At a left/right fork, I decided to end the dive and left a cookie and line for a return dive. We packed out without incident — a successful first sump push in Sheep Creek Cave.