As of 16 FEB 2008, the logging
requirements for this cache have changed. To log this cache
you must:
1) ENTER THE MOUTH OF THE CAVE and take a
photo of the spring from there. The roof of the cave MUST be
visible in your photo. (see lamarsha's 25 JAN 2008 photo
for an excellent example of this)
2) E-mail me an estimate of the diameter of
the spring at the time of your visit.
Please do not log this cache if you are not going to do it
correctly. The point of the cache was to take people along a
specific trail that follows the edge of the gulf from the final
swallow hole upsteam to the spring and cave. If this trail is too
difficult for you to follow, DON'T DO IT.
If you find you are unable to fulfill the logging requirements,
feel free to post your experience and photos in a NOTE. Thank
you.
If you have trouble finding the trail to the cave mouth, try
doing my new cache
"Let me lead you by the hand..." (GC19E2W) first.
Cache may not be available in times of high
water.
To assist you in logging this cache, take a good look at the
following photo:
As you can see, there are two trails down to the spring. The
trail shown in green is the one you need for this cache. It will
take you to the cave entrance (marked by the large green dot on the
photo). You can find the beginning of this trail at
N38° 37.354
W086° 31.350
Wesley Chapel Gulf is one of the most
impressive geological features along the Lost River. This Gulf is
located on a direct line between the main rise (located two miles
west) and sink (located 5 miles east) of the Lost River.
Wesley Chapel Gulf is an abrupt steep-sided
depression, which resembles a large peanut shell. The gulf measures
1,075 feet in length and averages approximately 350 feet in width.
It includes an 8.3 acre area as measured from the rim, while the
floor of the gulf is around 6.1 acres in size. The gulf walls vary
in height from 25 feet on the northwest side to approximately 95
feet on the southwest side.
The Lost River rises from a 125-foot rise-pool called Boiling
Spring located at the southern end of the gulf. The artesian waters
rise from the main subterranean course of Underground Lost River.
The rise pit overlies a water-filled opening about 3 feet in
diameter that slopes downward to where it intersects a larger
passage about 160 feet from the rise pit and about 45 feet below
normal pool level. The large passage is 10 feet high, 30 feet wide,
and extends northeastward at least 200 feet. The waters in Boiling
Spring are forced to rise 20 feet or more from the submerged
passage during low-water periods, and as much as 50 feet or more
during flood periods. During low-water periods the Boiling Spring
pool is 25-30 feet deep, azure blue in color and perfectly calm.
The water flows for a short distance, then disappears through the
mud-covered talus rock at the base of the south wall of the
gulf.
During high-water periods the water increases in volume and
becomes muddy and silt-laden as it rises turbulently from Boiling
Spring. The pit fills to overflowing and the water is discharged
into the flood-water channels. The channels are littered with
swallow holes (over 100 have been recorded). Each of the swallow
holes is successively filled to capacity. Flood waters primarily
enter the underground system immediately south of Boiling Spring
rise-pool through chinks in the limestone wall, through other
openings in the southern and western walls of the gulf, and through
several swallow holes located at the northwest end of the gulf.
Following very heavy rains, the gulf floor may become completely
inundated by up to five feet of water. At such times the waters
issuing from the pit are violently turbulent and great boils of
rising waters discharge from it. As much as 4,000-5,000 cubic feet
per second issue from the underground course of Lost River. The
flood occurs because water enters from the pit faster than it
drains out through the numerous swallow holes suggesting the
flooding occurs more on account of the limited capacity of the
underground channel system west of the gulf than due to the limited
capacity of the numerous swallow holes through which the waters
escape from the gulf.
The processes which have formed the gulf are still in operation
and the growth of the gulf has been progressive. The gulf is a
product of perimeter collapse and dissolution of the fallen rock.
The streaming waters surrounding the gulf are perpetually working
to enlarge it into a lengthening valley expanse. In describing his
Wesley Chapel Gulf explorations Dr. Clyde Malott (1932) wrote:
"This miserable little stretch of the underground river route gives
us but a tantalizing glimpse of a mighty cavern, whose main channel
length cannot be less than eight miles. Inadequate as it is, it is
a sample of a big cavern in the making...coursed by a dangerous
river. It presents a forbidding, mysterious, fearful picture to the
senses and it is impressive only when conceived as the underground
conduit of a large stream more than eight miles in length and 60 to
150 feet beneath the upland surface which feeds water to it
through... nondescript inlets."
No one is completely sure how far the complex cave system
extends and only about 17 miles have been explored. However,
underground it is expected to be the longest cave system in the
state if, or when, it can ever be thoroughly explored.
Lost River is home to some species of animals rarely seen by
most humans. Rare white crayfish are just one of the underground
water-loving species protected after the Nature Conservancy of
Indiana, which bought 213 acres of land above for preservation.
A gulf is always associated with an underground stream, and its
development is dependent upon the collapse of the rock overhead and
the solution and removal of the fallen rock. Gulfs have their
beginnings in collapsed sinkholes. When a collapsed feature has its
steep-walled perimeter enlarged to such an extent that it possesses
a distinct alluviated floor in which an underground stream rises
and sinks, it may be called a gulf. The alluviated floor is usually
marked by stream-formed channels which pass from the rise to the
swallow hole or series of swallow holes where the water is returned
to the underground channel system.
The Wesley Chapel Gulf and its deeply alluviated floor of clays
and silts indicate approximately 720,000 cubic yards of native
limestone have been dissolved and removed. The width of the gulf is
far greater than any known section of underground Lost River. The
gulf is more than a collapsed cavern whose rock has been dissolved
away. The shape of the gulf and its present relationship to the
underground water courses suggest the nature and method of its
development. It was probably one or more collapsed sinkholes of
rounded outline over a broad and weakened portion of the
underground system. The collapsed rock obstructed free passage of
the water, which caused the water to further undermined the walls
around the collapse depression. Further collapse increased the
perimeter of the initial depression. If two or three collapse areas
formed in a row, their perimeters in time merged to form a large
and elongated depression with semicircular ends, such as Wesley
Chapel gulf possesses. Horns of rock would extend out in the
depression for a time, but eventually would erode away. One such
horn of rock, tumbled and broken, still extends into the floor of
Wesley Chapel Gulf.
Information taken from:
Hoosier
National Forest - Wesley Chapel Gulf
Indiana Outfitters - Wesley Chapel Gulf in Hoosier National
Forest
Orange County, IN -
Orleans