$3.00 to get in to American Fork Canyon
If you have a National Parks Pass, they will waive the entrance
fee, but you have to tell them that you are going to Timpanogos
Cave.
$6.00 to get a pass for the tour guide. (I would pay $12 to
not have the guide, but I understand the guide is more like
a security guard protecting the fragile rock structures).
The last time I hiked Timpangos Cave I was about 3 or 4 years
old.
TImpanogos Cave was discovered in 1887 because all the lower
trees had been chopped down in the canyon, and a guy had to
climb half a mile up the ridge just to find wood.
(He followed cougar tracks the rest of the way). His name
was Martin Hansen, and his section was so terribly looted
that the people that discovered the second cave kept it a
secret.
Along the way up, you come to this little tunnel which is part
to the earthquake faultline.
SHOWTIME!
The tourguide makes the entrance. From here you get a 10-15 minute
introduction
and get-to-know-you-better session. You might want to bring your
No-Doz.
Inside the anticlimactic Hansen Cave. I asked the tour guide how
long the tour would take.
Her response was something like "You ain't going no where,
HA HA HA!"
This scientist was scraping fungus off the stalactite to find
out it's DNA.
Depositing roughly 1/4 inch every century = A long time.
Looking up at the drip nodes above us.
Do you know what these drip nodes remind me of? - Upside down
Bryce Canyon.
This limestone formation looks like something from the movie "Alien".
Stalactite Heaven
Helictites
Timpanogos Cave is famous for this very rare phenomenon
The case isn't closed on how these form.
Micro Helictites
I think that this type of cave formation occurs when minerals
are not just diposited on the bottom tip,
but diposited at the connection to the wall, and the bottom tip,
with a likelyhood that at the connection, there are little vessels
where the water slowly flows.
Kind of like those 4rth-of-July extruding snakes that grow out
of the road like black chalk pasta.
But upside down in extreme slow motion.
The 4,000 pound "Heart" of Timpangos.
The tour guide gave an emotional speech about the legend surrounding
Timpanogos,
which involves a indian squaw turning into Mount Timpanogos.
You might want to bring your cowboy boots and a fresh Kleenex
for this one.
