Cave in Nevada. Nikon D5500, Nikon 55-200mm, 1/320, ISO 200.
Let’s take it back to December 27, 2017. It was another Christmas in Reno, my 4th in a row, and I was getting used to long car rides into the high desert. This expedition was to explore an old cave that had apparently been home to native Americans as long as 11,000 years ago. Now it was our turn step foot inside it.
After a couple hours of driving we turned onto a dirt road that seemed to never end.
Wild Ass Road. Nikon D5500, Nikon 55-200mm, f/11, 1/500, ISO 200.
Eventually, after a couple of turns and road changes (Siri had a hard time keeping up!) we arrived at our destination. The cave was large but also largely hidden by its surroundings. ! I’m used to squeezing myself into old mine shafts but you could walk in standing up! Let’s be real, if you enjoy the smell of bat urine and guano, this is the cave for you.
As you enter the cave (with your shirt over your nose), you notice it quickly opens up into a large chamber with a high ceiling. The other things you notice is that the temperature rose about 20 degrees and it became incredibly dark. Oddly enough, there was an old ladder set up on a short wall enabling you to get higher as the back of the cave rose up steeply.
My girlfriend’s father and I scrambled up as high as you could go and it appeared that you could maybe squeeze yourself through a slot and keep going but there was no way we were going to investigate that. Not for all the guano in the world.
GoPro screenshot.
Ensuring we were covered in a fine guano dust we climbed back down to the entrance of the cave and made our way out into fresh air. After a bit of exploration and some lunch we climbed back in the Frontier put the cave in the rearview mirror.
The excitement wasn’t over just yet. Donkeys! We were almost back to the main road by the time we saw them but there they were about 250 feet off to our left; a herd of about 10 wild donkeys. They clearly saw us before we saw them as they were standing very still and had their long ears trained on us.
Donkeys in the distance. Nikon D5500, Nikon 55-200mm, f/10, ISO 200.
The road turned to the left and took us a bit closer as we pushed on. Normally I wouldn’t be photographing donkeys as they are a pretty common farm animal, but when they are wild, there’s a whole new spectacle to them. Wild animals have an entirely different aura about them and they have this look like they’re saying, “Try and contain this.” As we got closer we stopped and I took these shots out the window.
Nikon D5500, Nikon 55-200mm, f/5.6, 1/2,000/ ISO 250.
Nikon D5500, Nikon 55-200mm, f/13, 1/640, ISO 200.
So a pretty solid adventure all the way around.
Off roading in high desert ✅
Solid spelunking ✅
Wild animal sighting ✅
Nevada’s archaeological sites are protected and sacred. When you visit, please remember to treat them with respect and do not disturb them.
