Overview

Desert Cave is one of a pair of habitable caves in Cave Canyon. Desert Cave is an interesting place to visit, as there are many cave formations, but the cave has a long history of use and abuse by modern humans. Most of the cave formations are broken, and the only rock art is spray paint and soot. The cave is fairly deep and wide (about 80- and 70-yards deep, respectively), and they are cool in summer and warm in winter. There are few places like this around Las Vegas. Photos on this page were taken inside Desert Cave. For details of getting to Desert Cave, see Cave Canyon Route.

Watch Out

Other than the standard warnings about hiking in the desert, ...this hike requires a steep and exposed, 3rd-class scramble from the end of the trail up to the cave. Inside the caves, well..., caves are inherently dangerous, and it is hard to rescue injured people from caves. If you don't take at least three lights per person into the cave, don't go any deeper than where you can still see using natural light. After a few minutes underground, eyes adjust to the dim light, and hikers can go pretty deep without flashlights. If you want to go deeper, get some training, and always carry at least three sources of light. Getting around inside the cave requires some 3rd-class scrambling. The floors are uneven, and things hang down from the ceiling to bash your head. Be sure to review the standard warnings about going into holes in the ground.

The Cave

The cave entrance is relatively small, but easy to get through. Inside, the cave opens up into a wide cavern with a low ceiling. There is a lot of broken glass, trash, spray paint, and candle wax inside the cave, but the darkness hides most of it. Hikers can enter this big room without lights after letting the eyes adjust. For experienced cavers, work back into the mountain. The explored cave is about 80 yards deep, and the back of the cave is about 40 feet lower than the entrance; I don't know how much of this cave is unexplored.

There are nice, if elaborately painted, cave formations in the cave. There are several stalagmites in the center of the main room, and there are many smaller ones around the edges. There once were nice stalactites and cave bacon too, but all of the bigger pieces have been removed. There are a few nice little soda straws tucked around in the corners. Farther back in the cave where the ceiling is low, there are lots of columns and some nice flowstone.