Utah: Timpanogos Cave
All of us before going into the cave. Kalai was a little scared but someone gave him a flashlight and that helped a lot.
Timpanogos Cave is an amazing site to hike to if you’re in Utah any time between May and the beginning of September. After a 1.5 mile hike that climbs steeply 1,092 feet and gets you to 6,730 feet above sea level, you reach the cave entrance. The views of the canyon alone make the hike worthwhile, and you can also just take the hike without going into the cave.
Make sure to reserve your time slot in advance — especially if you’re thinking of going on a Saturday — and since we had five people in our group (two kids, three adults) I had to reserve them as soon as I was able (you can reserve a month in advance).
With your time slot, they give you a good amount of time to make the climb. We were even 20 minutes late and still made it to our scheduled tour 10 minutes early. (For example, our time slot was 10:30am. We arrived at 10:45am, but didn’t get going until 10:50/10:55am and got up to the cave by the tour time which I believe was about noon.)
The tour itself is incredible. I’ve been to quite a few cave tours (Grand Canyon Caverns, Cumberland Caverns, Mammoth Caves and more) but this one felt a little different in the formations. Also, the cave temperature is an average of 45 degrees all year round which is a nice break from the heat and sweaty feeling after hiking. But be sure to bring a good jacket.
In Summary…
Reserve in advance
Get there close to on time, but know you have some extra time to get to the top
1.5 mile steep hike to the top
Amazing views
45 degrees inside cave meaning definitely bring a jacket (they have sweatshirts for sale at the store and Britt got Kalai the smallest one they had and it will be a years-long investment since it’s so big on him (he looked adorable though as shown below))
When we were HALFWAY THERE!
This was a cool component as we got further up.
