Penn Aqua Cave (in Mifflin County)

This is one of the most spectacular caves I have seen.  It has two natural gates as well and they work together to keep out those who might otherwise destroy the beauty of this cave for everyone else.  The first of the two natural gates only keeps larger framed people out.  The entrance has a triangular shape which makes a narrow and uncomfortable left turn.  I had to try a few different angles to get past this spot about 7 feet into the cave.  One person in our group didn't make it through.  The second natural gate is a long slanted water passage which allows only your head to remain above the water.  There were even two duck down points where the water was going into my ears and was just about in my nose.  The water is 48 degrees and so we all have wet suits under out coveralls.  This obstacle is a fierce one that keeps those who aren't prepared for it out.   It's a good thing too!  There's a spectacular cave beyond that area of the cave.

This is the first formation inside the cave.  It is oddly very smooth as though it is polished stone, like those ones you can buy at the nature stores.  It almost looked like whittled and sanded wooden look a likes.  The owner says that once in awhile the water level gets so high that it comes out of the cave entrance.  These formations are probably well under water in that case and likely explains the polished look.

Before I forget to show you, below is a photo taken before we went into the cave.  From left to right:  Shawn Kitzmiller, Craig Anderson, Alan Horn, me (Matt Saltzer), Harry Sowers, Kevin Dunleavy and Leslie Lubaczewski.  Harry had been in the cave about 15 years ago.  Alan has been in recently and the rest of us were experiencing it for the first time.

(All of the pictures on this page came from my new Canon s300 digital camera.  I bought it to capture better pictures than can be obtained from disposable cameras.  The particular model I got also has a waterproof housing which I will use when caving, rafting or any thing else where it needs protection.  After switching batteries in the camera once, I shot about 235 photos, many of which were filled with fog, were blurry, of center or just duplicates of the same shot.  After all the photos were transferred to my laptop, I picked out about 75 of the best shots and so you can see some of the cave from your computer, here are some of them.)

As we progress a little bit further into the cave...

These ribbons hang down over a watery crawlway which we approach from downstream.  They are about as thin as construction paper.

Leslie smiles for the camera after we get past the thin ribbons and discover ourselves in a nicely sized room.  The ribbons are only a small part of the spectacle on the rest of that wall of this room.  The moisture in the air prevented an area photo of the entire wall but here is more of what we saw: