Barn Hollow Nature Preserve

Bangor Hill Cave

38º 01.522' N
83º 25.837' W

We highly suspected there was a forgotten cave in here.  The locals mentioned how there was "one large enough to enter by crouching in the forest, up the creek about a mile.

It took us a half-day hike in the forest to locate the right area.  Being from Minnesota we aren't used to knowing where to look.  The caves can be high up on the hillside and aren't necessarily in the lower altitudes.  Jeremy is the one that actually found the entrance. We were using Motorola 2-way radios to communicate and were about 1/4 mile apart. He split off from Cave Branch Creek following a "wet spot" up towards the sandstone outcroppings.

By the time I climbed up and down the hills to reach him I thought I was going to have a heart attack from the exercise.  This is the best picture of the entrance we have. It has obviously been covered by others in the past to make it disappear.  The entrance is not horizontal but rather a vertical hole in the earth that goes down about 10 feet.  From there is flattens out and heads into the hill.  We were not crazy enough to play around this thing and neither should anyone else. There are much better and safer caves the public are allowed to freely explore.  Check out Carter Caves only 30 minutes away for nice caves.

Although it was pretty obvious we found the main entrance to the cave Jeremy and I decided to walk around the peremiter of this sandstone structure.  There were very old grape vines and mountain laurel plants growing out of the cliff.

For some stupid reason we decided it would be a good idea to see what was on top of this strange cave-rock.  This was about a 30-foot climb up a crack in the rocks. Jeremy said we'd find a way down on the other side.

The top of this rock was very flat and nice.  It looks like any normal forest  until you walk to the edge.

When we got to the edge it became clear what we had already come up the most shallow inclide already.  The whiteness you see in the photo here is really the sky and drop-off below.  The trees you are seeing are the tops of ones about a hundred feet tall.  If I were to run and jump here I could fall several hundred feet.  Edges like this make me nervous.

On the other side of the sandstone cave formation were more promising outcropping which could mean another entrance.  The problem is the long hike up the hillsides to reach these openings.  Just to find they only go back 10-15 feet.  I would bring binoculars next time I go hiking so I can more easily rule out false openings.

With great work we eventually found a way to climb down the steep slopes using the mountain laurel to hang onto.  Thank goodness for that stuff!