Nearby Hotels and Camping
Best Western, Holiday Inn, Hartman Center (Camping, rental cabins), there is primitive camping at Reeds Gap State Park.
Food
In the morning I sometimes grab breakfast at the Honey Creek Inn, it is your typical breakfast fare. After the cave trip I usually grab dinner at the Bel-Vue Inn – this is your classic rural PA cafe with home cooked meals typical of rural Americana. If we want something more upscale for dinner there is Shy Bear Brewing. It is rural PA though, so upscale here is about mid-level what you’d get elsewhere.
If you’re light on breakfast but want a good cup of coffee, I highly recommend East End Coffee in Reedsville.
Saturday Schedule
We meet at Rutters in Milroy at 10am and then drive to the cave from there. It is a ~10min drive away. We park about 200ft from the cave entrance. We will be in the cave as long as we want, but have to be off the property no later than about 7:30pm.
The Cave
Alexander Caverns is an ex-commercial show cave so it has all of the trails and handrails, but no lights. As such you can get as dirty as you want, or stay completely clean. The entrance has ~60 stairs to go down. From there it is all walking passage anywhere from 10-30 feet wide and 7 to 30 feet tall, all very heavily decorated. Cave is 50 degrees or so, 100% humidity, bring layers. If you decide to get dirty then definitely bring a spare change of clothes. Hope and I can provide helmets and lights – but try to bring your own headlamp if you happen to have one. Nothing fancy is needed.
Cave Snacks, Etc.
Bring yourself a lunch: a sandwich, candy bars, etc. Hope and I will bring extra just in case, and we will bring a small stove to make coffee, tea, etc. As a reminder there are no bathrooms in the cave. If you need to pee you can do so in the stream passage. Anything else, unless its an emergency, will involve having to drive somewhere. Nearest bathroom is the Rutter we meet at, about 10 minutes away.
What Photo Gear to Bring
You’ll want your camera, a tripod, and your lenses. I typically use my 16-35mm wide angle, or a 50mm, or a 100mm macro lens. You can pack it in a normal camera bag, Hope and I will bring plastic drop cloths to set things down on.
If you have your own strobes and a sync device please bring them. I have strobes and a sync device, but not enough for everyone. This is the only gear that may be at risk of damage. Strobes are often set on whatever rock, mud slope, etc that you can find. The chance of them rolling off and falling can be high. I have gotten good at keeping strobes intact, but I may NO guarantees on this.
Other Stuff I Will Bring
I will have some flashbulbs, and flashguns for them. I will also have some umbrellas and diffusers and stands for them.
My Plan
I have one or two photos I would like to get with my large format 4×5 camera. I will likely use one of these as an example photo. Once we get in the cave we enter a space called the Cathedral Room. Here I will setup my photo that I want to take and explain the process to acquaint everyone with how cave photography works. This should take, at most, one hour. After that everyone can spread through the cave to take photos as they wish – or we can stay all together. We will play it by ear. I will show you both a wide angle shot (the cave equivalent of a landscape), and a macro photo of crystals and pearls.
Since the group is small enough, we can take an hour or two before we leave and do the wet section of the cave. This section has a large river passage that you traverse by boat. We will not be taking photos here, but it’s worth seeing. It is a very unique experience.
Roster
We have a full group. Some folks from a book publishing company may be joining us. We can maybe add more people but I need a good bit of heads up (no later than 10 days before). Right now I have the following:
- Rick Smith* (keyholder)
- Ryan Maurer*
- Hope Brooks*
- Cheryl Kerr
- Jackie Colestock
- Jackie Colestock+1
- Al Kok
- Doug Wood
* Trip Leaders
I look forward to see y’all soon!