Caves in Rolla/Waynesville Area

[crazyflights]

We went and checked out Spring/Tunnel Cave over the weekend in Waynesville, my friend had been there years ago so kinda remembered location. We stopped and got permission from owner. Very nice older lady, we advised not going to tear anything up, just wanted to walk thru from one end to the other, she let us drive right down to it. Was a blast, did alot of climbing for fun to avoid getting in the water and there is one side section that has some tight squeezes and will loop you back around, was awesome!! So far my favorite cave I've been in.

[Twail Wetard]

Thus is the tunnel that goes under 17 right? Prolly the most clean cave I've ever been in

[crazyflights]

Yes goes under Hwy 17.

Ya really clean is right.

[Twail Wetard]

Which entrance did you enter through?

[crazyflights]

We entered on side where you, open the gate *permission* drive down hill, make left and you're looking right at the cave, we went all the way thru, but I'm not sure where other side is vs Hwy.

[Twail Wetard]

So the side near the river that looks like a construction area?

[crazyflights]

Yes, my bad the side near the River.

[Twail Wetard]

I haven't been on that property but somebody told me about some big bullet holes in the side of that dump truck down there, huge freaking bullet holes.

[crazyflights]

[JDoe]

Did you just do the "tunnel" portion, or did you also do the "spring" portion? They connect via a low crawl. Tunnel is clean and huge, spring is dirty and has a waterfall in the back.

[Twail Wetard]

How in the hell do they connect? I didn't see any possibilitys unless its where you climb up the big duty mound up were most of the formations are.

[crazyflights]

on the other side/entrance I saw an area we could keep going but required more sqeezing and crawling than we were feeling that day.

[Twail Wetard]

It doesn't go anywhere at that end... Where the stagnant water is and the natural arch?

[JDoe]

It's a low squeeze (less than 24" I'd guess) near the front of the cave on the spring side and coming out in the first large room on the tunnel side past the twilight zone. It was through water last time I did it.

[PANIC! on the Titanic]

So... got a list of caves to visit now.

-Piquet Cave, have to find contact info on owner, or just drive up.
-Marcellus Cave
-Lamar Cave
-Kraft Cave, again, owners permission
-And 2 other various caves we heard about via word of mouth.

Thank you guys . My weekend is full now.

I know the location to a nice cave. Need repelling gear to further explore one area of it, so I have no idea how deep it goes. Don't know the name yet, haven't done any research. Lough gps location is 37.903913,-91.992302, but I can pinpoint it if anyone is interested....

I know this is an old thread, so hopefully you're still around. I have some comments and such perhaps you may reply to.

-Piquet Cave: Historically a no go per the owner. I've put it on the "I wish but yeah right" list
-Marcellus Cave: Out by St James, goes and goes and goes, about 5' x 5' box tunnel with about 2 feet of water throughout. Went back about 3000 ft and the tunnel started to taper.
-Lamar Cave: Alright. Been looking for this one a couple times. Location description is fuzzy, and since you know of this cave I assume you know what I'm talking about. I went out a couple times this summer looking for it. Found some karsty areas in the ravines but no sinkholes, and the last place I wanted to check was so overgrown I said screw coming back here in months that don't end in -ember. So It's almost time to go out looking for it again.

As for the location of the unknown cave requiring rap gear you posted, I have a Jones cave pinned nearby. Your coordinates are in section 26, Jones cave is in the NW corner of 25. Could be the same cave or there's another one nearby. You ever hunt it down?