Overview

This tough route leads to a huge sinkhole high into the Worthington Range. The sinkhole is a true leviathan -- an item of unusual size for its kind. The Worthington Range is limestone, and over the millennia, water moving through the mountain dissolved away a long tubular chamber that runs nearly parallel to the surface (a steep slope). Near the middle of the tube, the roof collapsed, creating the sinkhole with cave chambers running in opposite directions.

The easiest way into the sinkhole is a 30-foot, 5th-class downclimb. The descent is mostly vertical with a bit of an overhang near the top. The only hard part is right below the lip, but of course, that is also 30 feet up. Take a rope -- you can use it to rappel into the cave and then belay or jumar out. After you get into the sinkhole, the caving is entirely non-technical. There is a small, wet cave with nice formations and pools of water (from which the bats drink) to the east, and a large, dry cavern to the west.

Note: I've learned that there is a short route to the cave from the other side of the mountains. Cavers interested in the cave, but not the hike, might look into access from the west side of the Worthingtons.

Link to map.

Watch Out

Other than the standard warnings about hiking in the desert, especially the section about holes in the ground, ...this is a tough hike with myriad possibilities for injury, and then you get to the cave. There are two ways to the cave, both of which are steep and provide a variety of places to fall and get hurt. At the cave, which requires ropes for entry, vertical rockcraft always is dangerous, and cave rescue is a complicated, difficult, and painful endeavor. Inside the wet cave, the floor is slippery and hard things hang down from the ceiling. The approach has an additional, if unusual, danger for hikers: the Air Force dropped two 500-pound bombs on the route that didn't detonate. I've been told that they are dummy bombs and full of concrete, but I still wouldn't investigate too closely.

This route requires ropes. If you don't know how to use ropes, go with someone who does, get some training, or visit a walk-in cave. This cave isn't interesting enough to risk getting hurt; if fact, it is hardly interesting enough to be worth the hike.

While hiking, please respect the land and the other people out there, and try to Leave No Trace of your passage. This is a long hike in a remote place where rescue would be difficult, so bring the 10 Essentials. Make sure this route of the appropriate difficulty for your skills.

Caves are delicate places: don't touch cave formations because the oils on your hand will hinder or change the growth patterns. Don't break any formations; don't bring back any souvenirs from the cave.

Trail Guide
Getting to the Trailhead

Leviathan Cave is located in the Worthington Range, northwest of Hiko and northeast of Rachael, about 150 miles north of Las Vegas.

From Las Vegas, drive north on Interstate-15 for 21 miles to Highway 93 (Exit 64) (Site 674). Exit the interstate, turn left onto Highway 93, and drive north for 72 miles to Alamo (Site 675). The Del Pueblo (Exxon Station) is the last place for food (not so good anymore), and the little motel about 1/4 mile before the Del Pueblo is acceptable if you are tired and don't want to sleep out. Continue north on Highway 93 for another 9 miles to Ash Spring (Site 444). This is the last gasoline before the trailhead.

From Ash Spring, drive north on Highway 93 for 2 miles to Highway 318 (Site 677). Turn left onto Highway 318 and drive west for about 0.7 miles to the Y-intersection with Highway 375 (Site 676). Stay to the right on the curve and follow Highway 318 north towards Hiko. At 8.6 miles north of the 318-375 intersection, turn left onto Mail Summit Road (Site 886), a graded dirt road. The turnoff is marked only by a stop sign. Reset your odometer here.

Drive west on Mail Summit Road. The road runs fairly straight towards the mountains. At 3.2 miles out, a road comes in from the south (left). Up to this point, the Mail Summit Road is not marked on USGS topo maps, but the road from the left is on the map.

Continue west on Mail Summit Road, trending west and north through a canyon in an old burn area. The road splits (Site R03) where it goes up a narrow canyon. Both forks rejoin at the top of the canyon (Site R04), and it might be wise to stay to the right both ways. At about 11.0 miles out (Site 888), curve left (west) at an intersection of dirt roads in Coal Valley. Drive northwest over the next ridge (Murphy Gap), staying to the north (right) at a junction just over the pass (Site 889).

This puts you in Wild Horse Valley; truly scenic high-desert country. Drive west and then north through this valley. As you pass a knob on your left, you enter Garden Valley.

When the road straightens out, you are in Garden Valley, and the trailhead is right across the valley to the west, but you need to drive north for a few miles before looping back down the other side of the valley. The mountains across the valley are the Worthington Range, and the high point on the south end of the range is Meeker Peak (8,768 ft). Leviathan Cave is on the other side of the peak, about 1,000 feet below the summit. There are two large, limestone buttresses on the north side of the peak. One route to the cave goes up the chute between the two buttresses, over the ridge, and down the other side. The other route follows improbable ledges under the face of the western buttress and circles around to the other side.

In Garden Valley, drive north on the main road to about 28.9 miles out (Site 890), and then turn hard to the left (southwest) on a 1-lane graded road that leads to an old water tank and a corral in the bottom of the valley, which you can see from a long way off. The corral is about 29.6 miles out. Continue west past the corral to the base of the mountains (29.8 miles out), where a 1-lane dirt road curves left and runs south along the base of the mountains. Drive south to 33.1 miles out, where a metal T-post (fence post) marks an intersection (Site 891). Turn right and drive west up the 2-track to a large camping area at 33.7 miles out. A regular sedan can make it to this point. With a high-clearance vehicle, continue west for another mile to the end of the road (34.7 miles out; Site 892), where there is a small campsite. Park here, this is the trailhead.

There is parking for only two (maybe three) vehicles at the end of the road, so hiking groups should leave most vehicles at the big campsite and car-pool to the trailhead.

The Hike

The trailhead is located in the Pinyon-Juniper Woodland zone where fairly short trees suggest a fire long ago. Among the trees are Sagebrush, Mormon tea, grasses, and few other shrub species. From the trailhead (and from camp), you can see Meeker Peak, the two limestone buttresses that guard the north side of the peak, the chute that runs between the two crags, and the crest of the range north of the crags. There are two ways to get to the cave: (1) straight up the chute and over the ridge, and (2) under the western buttress on improbable ledges and circling around the back. The two routes diverge about 1 hour from the trailhead

From the trailhead (Table 2, Wpt. 2), hike southwest along the top of a low ridge towards the major canyon to the west. Ancient peoples used this area; watch the ground for obsidian flakes that they left behind.

About 20 minutes out, the steep hillside forces the route off the low ridge and into the main wash (Wpt. 3). Drop into the wash and continue southwest. Parts of the wash are choked with shrubs, and it is sometimes easier to hike on the hillside above the wash. Hike up the wash for another 40 minutes to the fork in the main wash (Wpt. 4) where the gully from the chute between the buttresses meets the main wash.

At this point, decide which way you want to go... around the buttress or up the chute.

Route Around the Buttress (Waypoints in Table 2)

Continuing up the main wash, you might encounter a 500-lb bomb lying in the bottom of the canyon and a tail assembly (retarding fins) lying on the hillside about 35 feet above (south of) the bomb (Table 2, Wpt. 5). This is said to be a dummy bomb, but it isn't worth investigating too closely.

In this vicinity, leave the wash, climb onto the broad ridge north of the wash, and use the ridge to gain the crest of the range (Wpt. A). On the crest, hike south to just a couple of minutes before you would be able to touch the base of the limestone buttress (Wpt. 10). At this point, you should be able to look down the west side and see a long, steep scree chute running between the ridge and the north face of the buttress.

Head down into the rocky, scree-filled chute for about 1 minute or less (more across than down), until you can start out on ledges that run horizontally across the face of the buttress. It doesn't look possible, but the airy route goes. Head for the far side of the cliff face, aiming for a notch between the buttress and a knob on the next ridgeline (the knob and notch are visible from the crest of the ridge before you start across the ledges).

Lightly edited transcript from voice recorder: Traversed highly improbable ledge system beneath the north crag. From the ridgetop (Wpt. 10), cut down and across steep scree slope to a little ledge with an overhang, then follow ledge farther west to a larger overhang with red stains on the rocks (quite visible from a distance). Continue working across ledges and go under a big slab that broke loose and leans back against the cliff. There are ups and downs, but try to stay at the same elevation as you work across the ledges. Lots of exposure here with lots of loose rock and scree. Dangerous place. Max [one of our party] took a fall in a bad spot, and I thought he might be taking the big one.

From the notch (Wpt. 11), hike south over the next ridge and into the next canyon, staying more-or-less at the same elevation as the notch. Start by hiking southwest across the sideslope, climbing over a low ridge by passing to the west of a band of cliffs (Wpt. 12). Try not to loose more elevation than is necessary to pass the band of cliffs.

Route Up the Chute (Waypoints in Table 3)

From the main wash (Table 3, Wpt. 4), hike up the side wash towards the chute. Shortly above the main wash, watch for another 500-pound bomb (Wpt. 4.5); this one might be a dummy bomb too, but don't mess with it.

Follow the use-trail into the chute between the buttresses (Wpt. C). It probably is best to stay on the use-trail, which runs along the northwest (right) edge of the chute, all the way up. The scree in the middle and upper portions of the chute is steep and loose, and there are a couple of short, dirty, 3rd-class scramble-ups. Near the top of the chute, exit to the northwest and climb onto the saddle (Wpt. 15). There are a few Bristlecone Pines at the top of the chute.

The use-trail crosses the saddle, and there are cairns on the saddle, and together these probably lead over the other side and down to the cave. When we came out this way, we started out too far to the south and ended up crossing the ridge far too high (south of the saddle), so we missed the trail (if there is one). From the saddle, my advice would be to try to follow the use trail. It probably runs southwest to a waypoint north of the cave (Wpt. D), then cuts south under a band of low cliffs to the cave (Wpt. 13). Map reading and GPS skills probably would help here [if anyone GPSs this route, please send me the track].

Traverse around the east side of the cave to get to the southwest corner of the cave opening (Wpt. 14). The entry point is located near the bottom of the canyon.

The Cave

Enter the sinkhole by rappelling or downclimbing the easy 5th-class route. The drop is about 30-ft; the top 10 feet are slightly overhung, but the bottom 20 feet is just a scramble up a ledge system. You will want a belay for the top part. Take some webbing to tie off a big boulder for the main anchor. I think we used two old swami belts (2, 20-ft pieces) to tie off the boulder twice. Take another long piece of webbing to tie off a small tree for a backup. Other than a few carabineers, no other hardware is needed.

The bottom of the sinkhole is a big open area with lots of brush and a clear view of the sky. From the entrance point, the floor slopes down towards the far side, and then slopes down in both directions from there. There is a campsite, a visitor register, and some old gear on the high point at the far side.

The wet room is in the east arm of the cave. A trail runs at a gentle downhill grade into the east arm. When it gets dark and the ceiling gets low, you arrive at a constriction that blocks easy access to the wet room. Squeeze through the diagonal slot into the wet room. Inside the wet room, a passage leads up into an open area with stalagmites, stalactites, columns, cave bacon, and several pools. Considering the size of the entrance, the wet room seems small. Don't touch or break anything in the wet room. Bats use the pools for drinking water.

The west arm of the cave is an enormous cavern with a huge chimney that must lead to near the surface. In time, the top is likely to collapse, leaving a deep vertical shaft. A long, steep scree slope leads a large area with a flat bottom. There are no narrows or side chambers. Some of the walls have ornate flowstone and mud, but there are no cave formations in this area.