We very excited to present our very first guest review by Tamara Forster from San Francisco. Thank you Tamara!
Moaning Cavern sounds tame enough, a quick pit stop on the road between San Francisco and Yosemite, just another place to take little kids who, after three hours in the car, have begun mooning other drivers. But not so. This place, which looks from the outside like a standard run-down tourist trap, is a great stop for a little adventure.
First, a choice: You can rappel, or you can wriggle for several hours through dark, dirty, tight tunnels guided only by a borrowed head-lamp. Or you can take the stairs down to the bottom of the cave, snap some photos, learn about stalactites, and climb back up, but who wants to do that? I opted to rappel and, after signing my life away on various forms and watching a video concerning all the ways in which I might die, I found myself looking directly down into a small, boxy shaft which leads into a cave large enough to house the Statue of Liberty.
A local college student, a lifetime expert in the arts of rappelling (so he said), had the job of strapping his victims into very non-sexy gear (which resembled a gigantic, tight thong worn outside the clothing) and then coaxing them into the shaft. The first part of the way down required careful foot work as I negotiated the sloping rocks, and it was a slippery journey thanks to all the tourists gone before. Finally, though, the ground ended beneath me and I found myself suddenly dangling in an immense and startlingly beautiful cave. (This is not the time to discover your fear of heights. Trust me on this.)
Beneath me, I could hear the faint echoes of voices reverberating up from the tiny smudges of people below. A group of tourists, it seemed, had taken the hundreds of stairs down to the bottom and were flashing pictures of everything nearby. Otherwise, there was nothing but air beneath my feet. The view at the top was peaceful, the rocks an amazing array of colors. As I surveyed the natural beauty, however, one of the multiple clasps attaching me to my rope snapped loose, and I suddenly viewed the cave in new terms of death, dismemberment, and unpleasantly long falls. I quickened my pace, admiring the rocks as I slipped downward.
The rappel took, beginning to end, about forty minutes, and at the bottom I was hauled in by a tour guide and greeted by a round of photo-snapping. And then, the downside to the whole adventure, I faced hundreds of dark spiral stairs to be climbed up before staggering through the gift shop and back out into the searing light of day, glad to be alive, glad to be on
my way.
Insider Info When you get to the bottom of the
rappel, you’ll be warned not to take off your gear
until you reach the lobby (hundreds of stairs above
you). If you ignore them, take the stuff off, and
promise to carry it up yourself, they won’t hassle
you, and it’ll be a much more comfortable climb back
up. Oh, and during the rappel, take your time & enjoy
the scenery. It's all over awfully fast.Not So Cool The people setting you up can be way too laid back, leaving and never returning or being vague on technique.How Much Dinero? $45/person to rappel, $99 for the
“Adventure Trip” (spelunking) with rappel included.The Fine Print Near Angel’s Camp, California. A great stop between San Francisco and Yosemite.
http://caverntours.com/MoCavRt.htm |  Tamara in a scenic shot. She's a bit shy.
|  Moaning Cavern uhm..rules.
|  We're supose to go, in there?
|  Probably would be a little.
|  I ain't scurred.
| |
|
February 23rd, 2005 at 4:32 pm
We need stuff like this here in Virginia - we have caverns in the Shenandoah’s, but nothing like this, and certainly nothing so adventurous. More of a ‘look but don’t touch’ place than anything.
February 23rd, 2005 at 7:09 pm
Hmm!
Perhaps we need to explore a little VA for you. I know West Virginia has a lot of nutty stuff. Check out our Nelson Rock story:
http://www.badassreviews.com/index.php?p=3
February 25th, 2005 at 6:55 pm
I did the Moaning Cavern spelunking and rappelling tour about 10 years ago. It was freaking awesome! It is a bit tight if you are claustraphobic which I didn’t really discover until the trip. Hanging in the cavern with no lights on was a bit frightening when the the tour group below had the lights off.
February 27th, 2005 at 8:14 am
Ok, that’s it, next time I’m in San Francisco, I’m going to try this thing.
I’ve repelled many times before (as a volunteer firefighter and fun), but I’ve never repelled into a hole in the abyss. Sounds freaky, gotta try it.
March 4th, 2005 at 8:43 am
This is something I’ve been looking at doing for awhile…my wife took the kids there while I was working, but they didn’t rappel. I had forgotten about it though. Thanks for the reminder.
March 6th, 2005 at 5:27 pm
I went here on a field trip. It was pretty cool. They didn’t let us repel though.
March 8th, 2005 at 10:37 am
Sounds very cool–I am a very big cave fan and that sounds like a great way to experience it!
March 10th, 2005 at 12:51 am
Man I haven’t done that in awhile. At least 5 years for repelling and almost 20 for spelunking.
By the way…over here from Blog Explosion. Nice site. Also tagged one of your Adsense ads…hope it helps.
June 24th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
I just did the adventure tour in June 06. Here was the write-up I did for friends and family.
I did this cave tour near sacramento. I was thinking it would be a little climbing and whatnot. Wow, was I wrong.
I have a slight fear of heights. I like to call it a “healthy” fear.
Looking at the brochure they advertised a rappel thing. “Sure, what the
heck. I’m on vacation! What the heck is a rappel anyway?” I called and
booked a reservation.
Bad idea. Very stupid. I’ve made some awful choices in life, but given my fear of heights, this has to be up on the top-ten list.
I showed up for the tour really late and called in to let them know. The guide talked to the other participants and they very graciously agreed to wait for me. But as a result of this infraction, I was “volunteered” to be the first to rappel.
The three hour cave tour started with the 160 foot rappel drop, and 100 feet of it was free-fall. At some point I hung in mid-air in a massive cavern and made the colossal mistake of looking around. The natural beauty struck me for a second, a very BRIEF second, let me emphasize. But as that second faded, it suddenly hit me: WHAT WAS I THINKING??!!. I was scared out of my bleep bleep bleeping mind.
I got to the bottom and sweat was pouring out of me. My blood sugar was plummeting. They told us not to eat too much for breakfast because once we were underground the no poopie rule goes into effect.
I told the guide I needed a coke or something, so I ended up climbing 270 stairs back to the gift shop, pounded a coke, reminded myself that I wasn’t dead, and went back down.
Then the actual tour started. Did I mention, I also have some
claustrophobia?
After a short decent into a pit, which was nothing I hadn’t done in my youth around the creeks, the real tour started. I was instructed to drop into a pitch black tunnel whose mouth looked about the size of a basketball. They called it “godzilla’s nostril”. Wow, that’s funny. Hilarious.
I siezed up.
Surely THAT was not where I was meant to go. There had to be another
tunnel. I frantically panned my headlight around until I realized, yes, that’s where this sadistic death march was headed.
Now, for any of you that has a fear of anything, you know what I’m talking
about. All ability for rational thought instantly vaporizes and your
adrenal gland redlines. Imagine if you were to look over and see a
fist-sized scorpion sitting on your shoulder. That was my initial sensation
when I saw that hole.
I explained to the guide that maybe this wasn’t a great idea. She gave me a minute to consider it before I took the plunge. She explained that this first part was the tightest it got.
I took a few deep breaths and calmed down. What made the difference was there were a couple of, how shall we say, “fat guys” in the group that had already gone. If they could fit down this passage, surely I’d be okay.
A couple times sliding down I had to twist and turn. It was really tight! I don’t know how the big guys got through it. But there was no way to go but down, down, down. So I simply accepted, I must go down!
Then I got stuck. My hips were too wide. Pitch black, no room to move and I’m jammed in this crevice. Just great. I couldn’t even move my arm to punch myself in the face.
I controlled my breathing and imagined a plate of nachos waiting for me at the bottom. Soon enough I realized my coveralls were just snagged. I had a turbo wedgie. “Let go of me stupid cave!” RIP! Uh oh, I tore the butt out of my coveralls.
In another minute or so I was down. Finally, I relaxed and enjoyed myself. I was still freaked out, but I was back in control.
Time seemed to be in fast forward. We crawled on our bellies through mud and over rocks. Connecting the tight passages were manhattan studio-sized apartments that gave short reprieve.
Before I knew it, the tour was over. I thanked the guide profusely and I’m going to send her a thank you letter. She was kinda cute, too! It was an awesome experience.
I went back to my bro’s place in sacramento still pretty wired from the whole thing. I asked what they had planned for dinner. My bro was feeling slightly under the weather and said he had burgers defrosting. I said forget the burgers. Tonight, we eat like Kings. Tonight, we will have nachos!
On their advice, I didn’t bring my camera since it might get destroyed. But on their web page you can see pics from other trips.
http://caverntours.com/ATpictures/index.htm
All in all, it was a TON of fun and a totally new experience for me. I am already looking into the Middle Earth Expedition at one of their other caves. That one is five hours!
December 23rd, 2007 at 4:21 pm
awesome review. thanks. gotta try it.