Allen Ford Cave near Covington, VA

This was the first day of a long drive on a 4 day adventure weekend trip. Six people were scheduled to go, five actually went. We collectively decided to stop at this cave along the way to our rafting destination of Summersville area, West Virginia. The trip included rafting on the upper section of the Gauley River, caving, rappelling, hot tubbing, etc....

I took the remainder of the camera's available photos from the Sept, 2000 J4 trip, although many of the pictures were solid black due to a Weis brand disposable camera's flash failure. Click here to complain to Weis.

This cave twists to the left and to the right and back again and again and again. There is basically an upper level of passage about 4 to 10 feet above the stream. While the lower stream level meanders, the upper dry passage does more of a b-line in areas. There is one place where you can climb up and over about a 50 foot high rock with some breakdown. It's a shortcut toward the very back of the cave but it bypasses the highlight of the cave which is where the main stream begins. It's a pool with thick sand bubbling up from the floor. It's a neat thing to see.

	Dirty already and it's only the first picture. There's Sue, Kingsley, Leslie and Chad. I have no clue what Kinsley has in his hand.
	This is a picture of a waterfall (kind of). It appears to be dark popcorn type of formations but what it really is.....???
	If anybody nose what I'm doing here, please let me nose too.
	Same spot although this time I've got something in my eye.
	This is a typical shot of the walls of this cave... smooth and curvy. I thought this was a particularly interesting hole on the left.
	No, I'm not ready to flick the cave life. My hand is there for measurement only. This was not the smallest or largest salamander seen in this cave. At the very back of the cave, I initially mistook a large salamander curled up in a hole as a snake. It probably would have been about 9 inches long if I had disturbed it just to see it stretched out.