I'm trying to remember when I went to Buckman Cave.  Let's see... I didn't go rappelling at Ship Rock, which was a bummer, but it hailed, so it's ok... That was one week.  Then it snowed and our next trip was cancelled.  That was another week.  Then I gave a speech about it at Toastmasters.  That may have been a few weeks after.  Or one week after. So, if two trains are travelling at a rate of....  Oh, who am I kidding?  I have no idea.  It's been a while.  But I have pictures to prove that I was there.  So it did happen.  At some point.

To get into the cave, we had to climb over basalt rocks


and through a narrow passageway


to get to the cave entrance.


After looking at the following pictures, I realized that a lot of them look the same as my previous pictures of Alabaster Cave.  Even though they're completely different caves with completely different rock types.  However, my camera doesn't understand that.  It says, "It's dark in here! I was built in 2004! I don't know how to do this!"  And it makes everything look the same. 

The rocks really weren't that light colored

I don't remember where we were at this point in the above picture, but this random person's butt gives you an idea of the kind of passageways we had to finagle ourselves through.  My teacher said that all the soft parts in our body are basically the consistency of jell-o and can be squeezed through many small spaces.  This is an interesting concept.  Not extremely comforting when your organs feel like they're smashing against your ribs, but I guess it works.


This was a pretty cool part.  We had to start up at the top where Red Shirt is standing and then get down to the bottom where White Helmet is.  It's higher than it looks.  But if you shimmy down through a hole and around the back of those rocks, you can climb down and get to the bottom. 

After getting down, there was a spacious passageway


that led to... the end of the cave?

So... now what?

Well, yeah, it's the end.  You have to turn around.  And climb back up the crazy tall narrow passageway you just went down.  That is, if you want to get back out.

But we didn't get out.  Not yet.  It may have been the end of the cave, but it wasn't the end of our journey.  There were a few more obstacles to get through before emerging from the depths of Buckman Cave...