Wind Cave in Darby Canyon

On Labor Day, we drove over to Driggs, Idaho to pick up a friend and her son.  Then we headed over to Darby Canyon to hike up to The Wind Cave.  We'd been there about 2-3 years ago and had talked about going back but just now made the time.  It was a stroke of good luck that we had extra company with us this time.

It was a beautiful day for a hike.

Jack happy to be a long for the trip.

Tank and his new buddy Summit. Tank didn't realize that other dogs could run fast, he's used to Jack.

The last time we were up here it was earlier in the season and this area where the dogs are playing was a pool of water at the bottom of a small waterfall.  Because there was more water last time, we assumed the dogs would have plenty of options for drinking, luckily our friend had a handy doggy water bottle. We'll be better prepared next time.

Looking up into the cave.

The water was coming out with such volume last time, we never attempted to climb into the cave.

Making our way in.

The hole!

Rumor has it, if you have right equipment, you can enter this hole and come out through an elaborate cave system into the Ice Cave up the hill and visa versa.  I have no desire to attempt it. The Sprout was a little nervous here and almost immediately asked to leave. We accommodated him relatively quickly. I was glad we didn't linger after we hiked down to the the resting area and were met by some cavers who exited that hole less than 10 minutes after we left the area. Can you imagine what The Sprout's reaction would have been if we would have been standing there when they came out of that hole?!?

It's about just over 2.5 miles to the cave and about an 1800 elevation gain.