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In the fall of 2025, I received a message from a good friend, Scott Anderson, who mentioned that his friend had discovered a fairly large hole in the ground, one where a dropped rock fell for over five seconds. I was immediately intrigued because a sizable entrance with a five-second drop sounds like another Nielsons Well. When he shared the location, and we identified the rock layer it was in, our excitement grew even more. It all seemed too good to be true.
On November 15th, we organized a trip to investigate the alleged cave. Our group consisted of Erik Srystad, Scott Anderson, Brian Dickey, Austin Goodsell, Blake Goodsell, Andrew Jones, Joseph Myers, Arden Barnes, and Savanna. Erik Srystad was the one who had initially discovered the cave, though he hadn't yet entered it.
After a fairly steep hike, we reached the entrance and found that he wasn't kidding. It was sizable, not huge, but large enough to suggest there could be a serious passage below. We dropped into what turned out to be a 70–80 foot pit, and incredible cave formations were immediately visible. The entrance was so richly decorated that it was stunning to take in. From the bottom of the entrance pit, the floor slopes into an enormous room, like a smaller version of the big room in Nielsons Well. The ceiling was heavily adorned with formations and revealed a very promising high lead. From there, two routes presented themselves: a hole in the wall to one side, and a pit at the bottom of the room.
We explored the side passage first. It quickly became clear that this was a truly unique cave for the Bear River Range, owing to just how extensively decorated it was. Caves like this are rare in the Bear River Range, and even across Utah. Several leads branched off in this direction, but we pushed all the major passages and marked trails to help protect the formations from damage.
After thoroughly exploring the side passage, we returned to the big room and descended into the pit at the bottom. That drop led immediately into a third pit, which brought us to the bottom of the cave. This lower section was equally impressive. Massive flowstone hung high above, the kind you might expect to see in a National Park cave like Lehman Caves. Across the chamber, another high lead hinted at a potential passageway beyond.
As far as we could determine, this represents the full extent of currently explorable passage. What makes this cave especially fascinating is that it almost appears to be two or three separate caves that converged into one. The entrance pit shows a distinct water line halfway up its walls, and it looks as though the pit floor collapsed down into the big room. The side passage, meanwhile, has a character all its own, feeling distinctly different from the other two sections. Perhaps one day we can bring in geologists and other researchers to help piece together its story.
This ranks as one of the greatest discoveries in the Bear River Range in a long time, significant in its size, its formations, its unique features, and the fact that it was entirely undiscovered. We finished the survey in April 2026.
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