The Month of Debauchery: Timp Cave Edition

I took a week to explore my surroundings in Colorado, but that doesn’t mean that I’m done exploring the place where I grew up.  Even though I lived half an hour away from it for 25 years of my life, I have never been to Timp Cave.  If I could tackle Red Mountain, I could tackle the Cave.

A quick comparison of the two:  Red Mountain was a grueling 3 mile trail.  The trail to Timp Cave isn’t easy—a mile and a half with a climb in altitude of 1,600 feet—but the fact that it was so much shorter, and more zig-zaggy instead of straight up, made this climb a lot easier, although still challenging.

Red Mountain had a few scenic overlooks and a cross, but Timp Cave had scenic overlooks and a cave tour!

Here’s what I learned about Timp Cave: It’s not a cave, it’s actually a system of caves.  And actually, there are three different caves there with three different entrances and three different discovery stories.

Hansen Cave was discovered when a guy followed mountain lion tracks up the mountain.  As every smart person does.

Middle Cave was discovered by two guys who came to look at Hansen Cave and Timp Cave, and noticed that there was a cave opening in between the two.

Timp Cave was discovered twice—first by two 14 year old boys on a picnic, second by a guy who decided that the cave belonged to the public, and decided to open it up.  I liked the other caves, but Timp Cave was bigger, had more to look at, and had a stalactite in the shape of a heart with a pretty sweet legend attached to it.

Not to mention a stalagmite in the shape of a St Bernard.

I can’t believe it took me so long to explore this place!