Trip to Maquoketa Caves State Park

I had never spelunked before, and it sounded like a really nice thing to do for the weekend… So, when my friend called me early afternoon last Saturday and encouraged me to tag along, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. The Maquoketa Caves State Park is located near Maquoketa, Iowa and is a prehistoric site. More info about the state park here.

Although the trip was badly planned and we left a lot later than we should have, we did have fun. We were a group of 8 people and thought that it was a good idea to start spelunking 8 people at a time. Not smart. We were slow and ended up spelunking just two caves, the Wye cave and an unmapped one. I am definitely going back for more…

I was well equipped for the trip, with the amazing Coleman LED headlamp. This lamp had three settings – high, low and power-saving. I almost always had to switch the lamp to the low setting because the high setting was blinding everyone else. It was tough as nails too. I bumped my head against the roof of a cave and the lamp detached from the head band and fell into a water puddle on the cave floor. It turned itself off in the process and I thought it was broken for sure, but to my surprise it mounted back on perfectly and a twist of the setting dial later, there was light! When everyone else’s flashlights kept failing because of the water in the cave, this one kept going and I am really glad I purchased it. Buy it here.

Being a LED lamp, the batteries on this one are going to last for a while. And having field tested it for reliability and comfort, I am going to make sure I pack this lamp for any subsequent spelunking or camping trips.

And this is what spelunking does to your clothes…