Timpanogos Cave National Monument
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| Timpanogos Cave National Monument | |
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| IUCN Category III (Natural Monument) | |
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| Location: | Utah, USA |
| Nearest city: | American Fork, UT |
| Coordinates: | |
| Area: | 250 acres (1 km²) |
| Established: | October 14, 1922 |
| Visitation: | 107,170 (in 2004) |
| Governing body: | U.S. National Park Service |
Timpanogos Cave National Monument is a cave system in the Wasatch mountains near American Fork, Utah, in the United States. After a fairly difficult 1.5 mile hike on a paved trail up the side of a mountain, the cave opening is accessible. Tours are run when the monument is open from May through October.
There are three main chambers accessible in the tour: Hansen Cave, Middle Cave, and Timpanogos Cave. Many unique and colorful cave features or speleothems can be seen. Among the most interesting are the helictites, which are like hollowed straws of rock. They are thought to be formed when water travels through the tube and then evaporates, leaving a small mineral deposit at the end. Other speleothems found in the cave include: cave bacon, cave columns, flowstone, cave popcorn, cave drapery, stalactites and stalagmites.
The man who was given credit for discovering Timpanogos Cave was named Vearl J. Manwill. He came with the Payson Outdoors Club in 1921. The club might have come because of rumors of a hidden cave that no one could find. After doing the tour of Hansen's Cave, they all went different ways to try to find the rumored cave. Vearl went up above Hansen's, alone. After a little way, he found a crack, and looked in. He called the rest of the club to come look at what he had found.
That fall, George Heber Hansen and Wayne E. Hansen, Martin Hansen's son and grandson, were hunting on the other side of the canyon. While using binoculars to try to find deer, they came across another hole in the mountain, in between the other two caves. In a few days they came back, with 74 year-old Martin Hansen. Martin was the first human being in the cave, now called Middle Cave.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- National Park Service page on the Timpanogos
- A Utah travel site page about the caves
- A large collecton of Timpanogos Cave speleothem pictures
- Local caving Grotto
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| Parks of Utah |
|---|
| National Parks |
| Arches National Park • Bryce Canyon National Park • Canyonlands National Park • Capitol Reef National Park • Zion National Park |
| National Monuments |
| Cedar Breaks National Monument • Dinosaur National Monument • Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument • Hovenweep National Monument • Natural Bridges National Monument • Rainbow Bridge National Monument • Timpanogos Cave National Monument |
| State Parks |
| Northern Region |
| Antelope Island State Park • Bear Lake • Camp Floyd State Park • Deer Creek State Park • East Canyon State Park • Great Salt Lake State Park • Historic Union Pacific Rail Trail • Jordanelle State Park • Hyrum Lake State Park • Red Fleet State Park • Rockport State Park • Starvation State Park • Steinaker State Park • Utah Lake • Wasatch Mountain • Willard Bay State Park |
| Central Region |
| Fremont Indian State Park • Goblin Valley State Park • Green River State Park • Huntington State Park • Millsite State Park • Palisade State Park • Scofield State Park • Territorial Statehouse • Yuba Lake State Park |
| Southern Region |
| Anasazi Indian State Park • Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park • Dead Horse Point State Park • Edge Of the Cedars State Park • Escalante State Park • Goosenecks State Park • Gunlock State Park • Iron Mission State Park • Kodachrome Basin State Park • Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument • Otter Creek State Park • Piute State Park • Quail Creek State Park • Sand Hollow State Park • Snow Canyon State Park |
| Municipal parks |
| Ft. Buenaventura • Lost Creek Reservoir • Jordan River Parkway • Minersville Reservoir • Veterans Memorial Park • This Is The Place Heritage Park |
