Article & Pictures: Bob Brown
Jerry Knowles, Rod Henderson, and I had planned on driving down to Trout Lake October 2nd and returning home on October 4th. We waited for the weather to improve and drove down October 4th. From Randle (on Hwy 12) you drive south 52 miles south to Trout Lake. Most of this road is paved and at the half way point you drive over a 4000 ft. pass. My 4 x 4 truck had no trouble negotiating the 3 inches of slush we encountered south of the pass, but Jerry’s RV was greatly slowed down. We were going to meet at Peterson Prairie Campground which we found closed. After a couple of hours we found Jerry and then located an open campground (Trout Lake Creek). Monday dawned Sunny and warm, so we headed for the caves. We first checked out a cave which has two entrances in which you can do a thru trip. After describing the narrow passages that had to be negotiated we decided to try a slightly larger cave. We had no problem finding Resurrection Cave with the use of GPS. We spent about an hour in Resurrection where you have a mix of passage ranging from 24 inches to (walking) stand up passage. We even saw a sleeping bat! Next stop was Dynamited Cave which is mostly walking passage and went as far as the first fifteen foot drop. With no rope we could not go any further!
Rod Henderson & Jerry Knowles in Resurrection Cave
The pictures left to right: A bat sleeping in Resurrection Cave. Rod & Jerry standing under a natural bridge near the fifteen foot pit in Dynamited Cave. Far right picture is Rod Henderson in the entrance of Dynamited Cave. You will have to ask Rod how much fun he was having on his caving day?
Tuesday was again a sunny warm day and we decided to go for a hike before heading home. Close by our campsite is a trail to Sleeping Beauty a 1350 foot climb to the top of a rock outcrop. This 1.5 long trail is steep, but the view from the top is great! Trout Lake is a very nice area to car camp. The weather being a little dryer and warmer than the west side of the mountains most of the time. There are many caves in this area and some very nice hiking trails. After our hike we packed up camp and Rod & I headed home. Jerry decided to spend another night and investigate some nearby fishing areas. Next summer I would like to visit this area again and will post a trip notice in the PWC news.
This trip report submitted by the Admin on 11/29/2009
To view Bob's original PDF trip report click the link below. Please keep in mind that these large pdfs may take a while to load.
Trout Lake Trip Oct 2009
