Explorers discover more than 600 feet of unknown passage at Natural Bridge Caverns
SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — An expedition at Natural Bridge Caverns has uncovered more than 600 feet of new passage in the caverns — the biggest discovery there since 1967.
Officials there say after the easy to navigate Discovery Tour ends, there is a much more difficult to reach extension to the system that contains the “Dome Pit” with a very large chamber with a seemingly inaccessible passage way at the top of a tall wall.
Photo: Bennett Lee Photography
The expedition team, featuring Bill Steele, Lee White and Orion Knox, went on a 13-hour journey to explore this unknown part of the cavern.
To put the discovery into perspective, officials there say it is like discovering a 60-story building on its side.
Among the discoveries, the team found long-abandoned bat roosts with guano piles they are sending to a lab for carbon dating.
Locating these roosts so far back from the sinkhole entrance begs the question of the possible existence of another entrance to the cavern, somewhere closer to the Dome Pit or further North in the new passage,” said Natural Bridge Caverns’ staff geologist, Brian Vauter.
After the guano discovery, the team found a pond of pristine water, surrounded by a crystalline formation known as “cave ice.”
Photo: Bennett Lee Photography
“These hyper-delicate phenomena are formed from mineral-rich drops of water that attach to each other and grow at the rate of approximately one cubic inch per 100 years, giving the visual impression of frosty ‘ice’ around the surface edge of the pools,” officials explained.
“For almost 60-years, we thought the passage at the top of the Dome Pit was inaccessible and that we would never know what was beyond that looming, dark opening. Ascending it was an incredibly thrilling experience and knowing that we were about to see and gently place our feet where no human had ever stepped is stuff explorers dream of,” said President/CEO Brad Wuest.
Brad and Travis took turns leading the team and placing those first footsteps. “It was incredibly meaningful for me to share this moment with my brother. As we arrived at a T intersection, we gazed into a crawl passage that extended in either direction, one covered with beautiful “soda straw” stalactites. Of course, we wanted to see more, but we were past due to return to the rest of the team and decided it was a perfect point to end with the knowledge of more cavern passages to lure us back,” finished Brad Wuest.
“Our family is incredibly thankful for the entire team’s support on this journey into a new era of discovery at Natural Bridge Caverns. Without their skill and experience, this trip would not have been possible,” said Travis Wuest, Vice President, Natural Bridge Caverns.
The team used drones to help guide the explorers and document the expedition.
Video was shot and edited by Passmore VR.
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