A Field Trip to Timp Cave

Two weeks ago, my daughter's class went to Timpanogas Cave National Monument on a field trip. It's a challenging hike to get there and I was a little worried about her making it so I decided to go with her in case she needed help.

But in order to go on the field trip, I had to get fingerprinted! It cost me $55 and about an hour to go to the district office and get this done. I found it very annoying but the district has decided to require all school volunteers to do this so I didn't really have a choice.

We took the bus to the visitors' center in American Fork Canyon and I ended up sitting next to a woman of Armenian heritage. It was cool to talk to her about Armenia with my son being there.

Next we hiked up to the cave. The hike is 1.5 miles with an elevation gain of about 1000 feet. It was a warmish day but we were in the shade for most of the hike so that helped a lot.

As soon as we got there, we started our tour:

This is called a column when a stalactite and a stalagmite have met to make one formation.

Camille and her friend Sarah

This large stalactite is called the Heart of Timpanogas.

In the background you can see two formations that will eventually become a column but it will probably take 100 years to grow the few inches necessary to join together.

It's pretty hard to tell from this picture but the rare formation that makes this cave a National Monument is shown in this picture. They are called helictites and they're little curlicue, spiral stalactites.

In the background you see American Fork Canyon opening into Utah Valley.

This is just part of Camille's class that went on the hike. I think there are 23 kids in her class.

It was a tiring field trip and Camille would have been okay without me but I was glad I could be there.

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