The purpose of this page is not only to show some of the cleaned up walls of the front "twilight" section of the cave, but to also identify some of the areas where we did not have time to completely remove the graffiti during Phase Two of the Project. If you visit the cave and see what may be "new" graffiti on the walls, you can check back here to verify if the graffiti is new or old. In some of the areas there may be historic markings from the original cave survey by Dr. Hibben and his students that we wish to keep intact as we study the history of the cave going back to the 1930s. If you happen to notice what may be new graffiti along the trail to the cave, inside the cave, or even seen in the parking lot or within a few miles of the parking lot we would appreciate a quick e-mail to notify our team so that we may quickly take care of the problem. (Just click on the Grotto Chairman or other links at the bottom to send us a short note. You can e-mail the webmaster and attach photos if you happen to have any that show any fresh graffiti.)

These examples of graffiti in the parking lot and along the trail have already been cleaned up

A great view of the cave and the spiral staircase is from a point just above the 2nd concrete stairway. Some of the iron-stained ochre colored rock may also be found on this slope, and is related to the ochre dust found in the cave which occurs at about the same elevation.

The temporary black gate shows signs of being kicked inward, most likely during the official cave closure.

The walls of the 1st Chamber are still clean after the graffiti removal project.

We are still working on some of the graffiti on the spiral staircase structure at the cave, and paint touch-up on the "roof" will continue

New Graffiti spotted on Sept. 16th will be covered with fresh tan paint

Two wide angle photos of the results in the front room of the cave

Wide angle photos in the 2nd chamber looking back towards the entrance. The photo on the right shows the left wall.

Second chamber closeups

Second chamber

left wall closeups

Second chamber left wall closeups on the left.

The wide angle photo of the right wall shows the opening above the low wall several feet to the left of the hard hat.

These wide angle photos show where the 2nd chamber ends at the low wall, about 40 feet back from the entrance. Most casual visitors stop at this point.

This point just beyond the low wall is the location of the Hibben survey team shown in this historic photo from the Maxwell Museum. Their survey instrument appears to be a vintage K&E transit on a wooden tripod.

Past the low wall there is still plenty of work to be done.