Lost River - Karst Information Portal

2007 NSS Convention Guidebook
Chris Schotter and Dave Black discovered
the entrance to Big Rock Swallow Hole
in February 2000. The initial push trip was in
May 2000 with Ted Wilson and Chris Schotter
finding a way through the tight entrance
canyon. They explored the first four drops in the
cave and stopped exploration at the top of the
fifth drop when they ran out of rope. The tight
entrance canyon was enlarged the following
month and the survey was started. The cave was
surveyed in eight trips, with 105 stations set for
a length of 1,496 feet
and a depth of 182
feet.
The cave is located
in the southeastern
portion of the
Harrison Crawford
State Forest. The
entrance is a wetweather
swallow hole
located beneath a big
sandstone bolder. The
entrance is a 3-foottall
by 5-foot-wide
crawlway. In a body
length one reaches
a narrow canyon. In
another body length a
16-foot pit is reached.
A 20-foot rope is
required for this drop.
At the bottom is a
formation room. Off
the room is a cobble
belly crawl that
gradually enlarges
until in about 100 feet
one is walking again.
In 25 feet of walking
another small room
is reached. In the
floor of this room is a
small, body-size hole.
338
Big Rock Swallow Hole
By Dave Black
During floods this hole can not handle all the
floodwater and the cave can sump at this hole.
Once through the hole and down a flowstone
ramp, one reaches a stream crawlway. In about
100 feet the stream crawl ends at an 11-footdeep
pit. A 30-foot hand line is needed for
this pit. At the bottom of the second drop is
a crawlway that quickly enlarges to become a
down-cutting stream canyon with numerous
potholes. In about 100 feet a 10-foot pit is
reached. A 30-foot rope is needed for this