Explore Wyoming: Deep Into Spirit Mountain Cave Above Cody

CODY — High above Cody, tucked into the side of Spirit Mountain and overlooking the town is a set of remote and expansive caverns known to few.

The entrance to Spirit Mountain Cave, a cavernous hole tucked away in the north side of what’s also known as Cedar Mountain, is blocked by a thick metal gate. 

The only way a member of the public can gain access to the cave is by getting a key and a permit from the Bureau of Land Management ahead of time to explore them. About 600 to 1,000 people a year take advantage of the access and explores this mysterious underworld.

Cowboy State Daily’s adventure was with Mike Poulsen, a member of Park County Search and Rescue, who gave a private tour of the dark cavern one recent sunny afternoon.

Caving, known as spelunking in America and potholing in England, can be dangerous, and those who do it should always wear a helmet and proper climbing shoes. 

Past rock-climbing experience doesn’t prepare visitors from a sense of anxiousness when climbing into the dark abyss. There are rumors that errant rocks still fall inside these caves, and that if people stumble into the wrong room, they could even become poisoned with carbon monoxide.

Poulsen dispelled each one of these tall tales with confidence.

Poulsen grew up in Cody and started exploring the caves when he was in the Boy Scouts. This visit was his 24th.

The caves consistently hover around a temperature of 50 to 55 degrees year-round and get no direct sunlight. Poulsen said even night vision goggles don’t work in the caves because to operate those, a minimal amount of natural light is still needed.

The cave is entered through an expansive opening some people refer to as the Great Hall. Setting up a spotlight near the entrance, the gnarled and craggy surfaces of the cave walls leap out from the darkness, showing layers of character in what was previously nothing but hidden shadows.

Decades of visitors have left a well-worn trail burrowing through the nooks, crannies and curvatures of the cave walls. 

Although eyes adjust quickly to the dimly-lit space, the trail bends around the corner and past the cavernous opening into what looks to be nothing more than a gloomy pit. Headlamps bob, strobing a path through what seems like infinite darkness.

Remarkable Past

The Spirit Mountain Cave is one of the few national monuments to be declared, and then delisted.

Known by many names in its history, the series of caverns was first called Frost Cave when Cody resident Ned Frost discovered it in January 1909. Frost showed the cave to world-renowned showman William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, who joined an exploration party to inspect the caverns with lanterns and ropes. 

Surveys at the time showed the cave to be 4,400 feet deep, holding hundreds of rooms and descending 2,000 feet below the Shoshone River.

The site was eventually renamed Spirit Mountain Cavern, based on a mythical tale of Indian observances in or near the cave.

Certain sections of the caverns are closed off like the popularly named “Rainbow Room.”

All of the areas are somewhat interconnected in what Poulsen describes as a “spider nest web.” 

Staring at a glowing digital map of the expansive cave on the screen of his phone, Poulsen explained how one must read the map in a three-dimensional manner, with some sections overlapping others like an M.C. Escher drawing.

Rescue Revile

Descending farther into the cave, the path becomes progressively narrower. 

It’s not easy work. Travelers’ breathing grows heavier despite the loss of elevation. In some ways, working through the caves is almost like squeezing through a narrow canyon rather than hiking up or down a mountain, requiring balance, grip and agility.

“Caving is a different apple in the apple cart,” Poulsen said.

Unlike a relatively flat mountain face, the three-dimensional nature of caves makes performing cave rescues a trying task for search and rescue teams, Poulsen said, mostly due to the extreme difficulty of hauling a litter out of a cave’s steep and narrow spaces. 

The rope systems used to haul these portable stretchers require the placement of anchors, one piece of a technical operation with many other complex issues. 

Cave rescues also require tons of manpower. 

Poulsen explained these types of missions “chew up rescuers” as they squeeze through sharp rock walls while carrying heavy equipment, sometimes through the least direct route.  

Although Poulsen hasn’t yet been part of a cave rescue, he and other members of Park County SAR have attended numerous cave rescue training seminars, including a 2020 class taught by the National Cave Rescue Commission head instructor Eddy Cartaya. 

“Caving is bar none the most difficult rescue anyone will perform,” Poulsen said.

No Walk In The Park

The caves are also not for those prone to claustrophobia or fear of the dark. 

A suffocating quiet swallows the air in the dark confines, yet it’s not readily noticeable or overwhelming, as no wind blows through the corridors, nor is any kind of natural wildlife apparent either, besides some bat scat piled up at the end of the cave.

At one point, those exploring have to straddle two walls of a small canyon to make their way through an awkward passageway. Although it’s not particularly difficult, one false step could mean a broken leg or worse. That sparks a flashback to Poulsen’s explanation just minutes before about how difficult cave rescues are.

After making it through, the exploration continues down into hidden depths, searching for little but getting all the mystery and allure one could want. 

Although none of the rocks inside are particularly unusual and the views are somewhat limited, walls of pea-green stalactites can be seen throughout, as well as the occasional geode.

The Caves Everyone Wanted 

Cody historian Bob Richard has told Cowboy State Daily that Frost and Buffalo Bill Cody realized the cave’s potential as a tourist attraction for the burgeoning community.

“They saw it as something on the road to Yellowstone to help draw people to Cody,” Richard said. “So, they petitioned President Taft to make it a national monument.”

Taft complied with the request nine months after Frost’s discovery, designating the 210-acre parcel of federal land Wyoming’s second national monument.

“A cavern in the state of Wyoming, of unknown extent but of many windings and ramifications and containing chambers of large size,” said President William Howard Taft when he established the national monument in 1909. “Magnificently decorated with sparkling crystals and beautiful stalactites, containing impenetrable pits of unknown depths is of great scientific interest and value to the people of the United States.”

The site was initially named Frost Cave in honor of the discoverer, but the federal government later changed its name to Shoshone Cavern.

In 1954, Congress delisted the caves amid local public pressure and a lack of enthusiasm from the National Park Service in managing the cave. After local efforts to manage the cave failed, the BLM took it over in 1977.

Return To Reality

The sensory deprivation brought on by traveling through the innermost depths of Spirit Mountain Cave contrasts with a typical day of nonstop calls, text messages and general noise.

Coming to the Great Hall again, natural light filters in for the first time since the initial descent into the underworld.

Various vandals and hoodlums have etched their names on the rock walls throughout the years; the formation’s natural grandeur offsets those violations as unimpressive.

These days the BLM limits who can enter the caves, to those who take the time to get a key and permit. Access is further limited, to those who would undertake a little toil to savor the beauty.

Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.