Caving

Caving; A hollow or natural passage under or into the earth, especially one with an opening to the surface. Sometimes that opening is small, very very small. There are hundreds of caves throughout the state of Arizona. Some are merely holes, requiring a rappel straight down to a room where you can go no further.
Other caves require a lot of squeezing and maneuvering to get through, and can go on for miles.

Onyx - a beautiful cave south of Tucson area. Entry is regulated by the local Speleological society. You must go with a guide. It is also recommended you have prior climbing/rapelling experience. This cave has a good introduction to everything - squeeze holes, rappelling, crawling through chutes to name a few.

Pichiboro - Located along the Mogollon Rim. This also has locked entry but the key is available through the forest service. You need to sign to get it and provide accurate counts of party memebers and length of time in there. The one time I was in there we were crawling alot over pebbles. I had really bruised knees from this. The cave opened slightly - enough to squat in before it was required to go though what seemed like a second birth.

After more crawling we came to a rroom where it was finally possible to stand. Unfortunately we could go no farther as our path then went under water for an unknown length, cutting our adventure short. There looked to be some really tight squeezes leading into unknown depths but we chose not to push them.

Bud Hole - At least that's what I'm told the name is. This is also along the Mogollon. This was a dirty cave that simply seemed to go nowhere. Still it was fun to squeeze into and fit three people in it.

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