My friend Echo and I recently explored Cave Gulch, the steep ravine behind Porter and Kresge colleges. This is a great hike for those new to UC Santa Cruz’s ‘backyard’, and provides some great, laid-back adventure for those more familiar with the area.

Porter Meadow's main field. Head straight and to the right!

Start at Porter Meadows and take any of the trails heading northwest towards Empire Grade. You will enter a hillside descent leading towards Empire Cave, also known as Porter Cave.

We spelunked in the cave, but if you would like to go straight to the gulch, take the tunnel below Empire Grade and head west, parallel to the length of campus. The gulch winds all the way down to Hwy 1 and the ocean, although we got hungry and decided to turn back after covering about 3 miles.

All trails West of the Empire Cave tunnel head in the same direction (downstream/downhill leads you away from campus towards the ocean and vice versa takes you back home), making it difficult to get lost. There’s also a high degree of biodiversity in the gulch, including a few species endemic to the Cave Gulch area.

Empire (Porter) Cave

Empire Cave is the largest known cavern in Cave Gulch, and entering it feels a bit like descending into a bomb shelter. After taking a few moments to

Entrance to Porter (Empire) Cave.

gather some gumption, I swung my camera over my shoulder and we took the 25-foot ladder into the darkness. Adjusting to the starchy silence of still, cool air, we turned right and climbed upwards into the second and third rooms. The cave has a fair amount of stalagmites, which are cool to look at and also have several varieties of fungi growing on them. In fact we were surrounded by a startling amount of plant life—complete with aphids—and I wondered if some of the spindles we saw on the lower walls were the far-reaching roots of plants above.

Photos by KellyAnn Kelso

Wriggling up into the next room was a squeeze, and we were grateful we’d worn durable clothing and headlamps. Echo was getting a bit out of breath from the lower oxygen content, so we decided to rest where we were. In this room (squatting room only) were dozens of mud sculptures—cats and trolls and fairies and skulls and slugs, to name a few. They rested in the tiny pockets formed by acidic rainwater. Upon looking closer, we also noticed faint yellow paint on the walls — glow-in-the-dark-paint. We entertained ourselves for a good fifteen minutes “charging” the stuff with our flashlights and then switching them off to gaze at the spectacle. I felt like we were sitting in the night sky: tiny dabs of paint spread everywhere, accompanied by slightly larger, more flashy looking ‘stars’.

Cavematt Harvestman

There was a single word painted amongst the array, which I didn’t think to record. It wasn’t English, and I’m still curious about its significance. Sitting there, in the moist clay of that room, breathing cave air and gazing at the work of who knows who was an experience I will keep of my time here at UCSC. There are no pictures of this area, you’ll have to experience it for yourself. I’m definitely going back to find that word again.

The Empire Cave Spider

We left reluctantly, descending back (I only slipped four times) towards the mouth of the cave. We detoured into a crevice just beside the ladder, and saw a Triphosa moth (they hang out in the cave during the day and leave to feed at night), several red centipedes, and a banana slug, the first of several spotted that day.

Turning around, Echo found himself face to face with a horde of really, really big daddy long-legs, or Cavemat Harvestmen. I felt they belonged underwater, moving their two front legs like a lobster moves its antennae—slowly, languidly and eerily. In truth, these spiders are all bark (or quiver?) and no bite. They carry no fangs, venom, or silk glands, and are harmless to humans.

It was then that I spotted a much more formidable creature—the endangered Empire Cave Spider, which is found only in Cave Gulch. A predator of the Cavemat Harvestmen, it is indeed related to the Black Widow, and was far too much for me. I credit Echo with the photo in full; after staring at the obviously man-eating arachnid for thirty seconds, I started shrieking like a lunatic. Needless to say, we were quite happy to be above ground after that encounter. A brief note on the absurd amount of trash we found in some parts of the cave: spelunkers, please mind your chip and candy and condom wrappers! They’re a deflating ‘discovery’, and threaten the health of the already endangered Empire Cave Spider.

Out of Empire and into the Gulch

The graffiti-strewn tunnel next to Empire Cave, underneath Empire Grade Road.

Back in the signature smell of drying Bay leaves and Redwood bark, we headed towards the graffiti-covered tunnel below Empire  Grade.  I love the tunnels in Santa Cruz—it’s as though some head contractor  said “You kids wanted a tunnel and we built you a frigging tunnel! You never said anything about lighting the damn thing!” As it was daytime, this was not the  most opportune moment to run screaming bloody murder through the tunnel — I recommend trying it at night. Just past the road, a sign marks the “Fred T. Willbanks Inspirational Grove”.  We weren’t very inspired by the roadway–but another cave just beside the  tunnel proved to be enjoyable. A significantly tighter crevice than Empire  Cave, Echo was able to wedge himself into the mouth while I took several badly focused photos (for shame, Kelso…). Hiking further in, we settled in for a healthy bushwhack session and kept a close eye on some very friendly poison oak. During a rest I seized the opportunity to bite into a raw Bay nut; they are quite tasty when roasted but can be gag-inducing raw (see recipe).

The beautiful canopy of trees above Cave Gulch.

All in all, we traversed three miles over the large rocks — an interesting three miles for a six foot male and a five foot female indeed. My already squat legs were no match for Echo’s sure-footedness, and in the end we settled into a mutual respect for slingshot hiking — as in, one person goes on ahead while the second person ambles at a significantly slower pace, and at a certain point person one decides to wait up for said slowpoke, then darts ahead again just as person two rounds the bend. I was grateful that he wasn’t the world’s biggest gentleman about it; the embarrassment of it all pushed me to negotiate the awkward terrain more and more fluidly as time went by.

Along the way, Echo and I encountered several interesting life forms, including an artist’s conk on the underside of a fallen tree. The fungus makes a nice sketchpad to any hiker with a small scraping instrument. We drew a sun on its white underside, which would have grown over a few days later. There were other varieties of mushrooms along with the medley of plants and animals. In the springtime, Cave Gulch is the place to go for seeing California Giant Salamanders, in their juvenile stage, along the streambed.

Dry for the couple of miles, the streambed abruptly began gurgling for no apparent reason. Taking a closer look, we discovered another feature of Karst topography: underground chambers and tunnels collect rainwater, occasionally releasing it back above ground in a gentle geyser.

Coming up on a third and fourth cave further down in the gulch, we discovered that some smart guy had decided they wanted to change the general hiker’s orientation of Hell Hole. The faux hell hole had a nice chest of treasures tucked below its mouth; in it we found a deck of cards, some drawings, a few marbles and colored pencils.

Not Hell Hole. Hell Hole is located closer to the ocean than this cave. The name of this cave is unknown.

Hell Hole

The slender entrance-way of Hello Hole a ‘fitting’ initiation into the cave’s passageways. As both of us were pretty tired at this point,  we didn’t venture in for fear of getting stuck down there. Hell Hole is aptly named for the ill-prepared spelunker; do not venture into this cave without somebody who either knows its passageways or who will agree to stay above ground and make sure you find your way out (and bring a reliable flashlight).

THIS is the entrance to Hell Hole!

Both caves are located uphill on the Northern side of the gulch. A bit of internet research may lead you to various maps about where their exact loci are, but I’ve left their discovery to your own spelunking discretion.

Log bridge.

Shortly after Hell Hole we wandered towards a stream junction. Beyond this point, the water ran consistently, so we hopped the stream and took the biking trail. There was an interesting foot bridge, and I walked across it several times feeling very sophisticated.

If we had gone fishing, we would’ve see one trout — just one stinkin’ trout. But we’d gone hiking — so we saw a trout! It darted behind a rock when we came trundling through, however once we stopped and gave it a few moments of peace, it cautiously skittered out and hung around for a bit. It struck me that this is pretty much all a fish has to do in their life, besides eat and avoid being eaten. I’d still enjoy being a fish.

One of our last encounters was with a small organic hut erected beside the stream. I instantly coined the hut “Dragon Lair,” per the painting, but beyond that I was happy to leave it be. Hope you find it!

We hiked back in relative silence, partly because we were engrossed in our surroundings and mostly because we were really hungry.

It had been overcast when we set out that morning, yet as we came up out of the meadows the campus gleamed like a jewel.

Additional Resources

Roasted Bay nuts recipe/tasting experience: http://feralkevin.com/?p=295

A map from the UCSC Natural History Museum: http://www2.ucsc.edu/mnhc/ucscnh/podcasts/podcast_stuff/cg_map.pdf

The "Dragon Lair"

(We wandered far past what this map captures, but it’s a great reference point for finding Empire Cave near Porter and the crossing underneath Empire Grade. There’s also a podcast tour, which covers several of the critters you might find — and a very fun fact about our mascot).

Karst topography of the region includes several caves and other oddities: http://www.cancaver.ca/docs/karst.htm

Cave Gulch’s documented biodiversity (I don’t understand a lot of it, but some ENVS majors out there might appreciate this): http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/734/files/cavebio.pdf

A virtual 360º of the gulch: http://www.virtualparks.org/scenes/ZyWNi46FmAI9IYdP_IkBHwQ.html 

Photo by Phil Carter.

Photo by Alex Zamora.

Down the hill from the Porter Meadow in the shadow of Empire Grade’s steady traffic, a quintessential UC Santa Cruz landmark lies hidden but not forgotten.

Part of the Cave Gulch system, it is the Empire Cave, more commonly known as the “Porter Caves.”

The Cave Gulch cavern system also includes the “Hell Hole Cave,” part of Wilder Ranch State Park, located just off campus. The exterior walls of these caverns differ only marginally from the surrounding surface level ecosystems except for their graffiti-covered walls and the orphaned beer bottles and abandoned aerosol cans resting on the ground. Inside the caves, however, are animal habitats not found anywhere else in the world.

Spelunker Jay Severson was climbing through Hell Hole one day when he had an encounter with one such unusual animal.

“I remember coming out of the cave, and at one point I looked up and there was this spider not five inches from my face,” Severson said. “It was pretty scary looking and I’m not a big spider guy, so I almost killed it.”

Severson later met a park ranger and learned that spider, called a Meta Dolloff, is on the California Department of Fish and Game’s list of threatened species and is not found anywhere else in the world. Severson, like most people who enter the caves, had been completely unaware.

“After I found out about that, I felt really bad,” Severson said. “I had no idea that that there was a species of spider [in the cave] that was in danger of going extinct.”

The Meta Dolloff or Empire Cave Spider has long, black legs, dark bodies and yellow or orange splotching on their abdomen. The spider, which resembles an enormous black widow, is one of many species unique to UCSC’s cave environment. The caves are home to a total of 70 species, six of which are particular to the local caverns.

The Cave Gulch Pseudoscorpion is listed by Fish and Game as a species of special concern. This red and white creature is smaller than a human thumbnail and releases venom out of its long pincers.

Gage Dayton serves as Administrative Director of the UCSC Natural Reserve, which includes the Porter Caves, and says that it is important that the habitats of the caves be well-maintained and preserved for the sake of the species living in them.

“There is a big danger because these animals do not live in very many places,” Dayton said. “Damage to one small area or population can have a tremendous impact on the species as a whole.”

Some damage has already been caused to the Porter Caves at the hands of the UCSC student body. The San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Empire Cave Cleanup organization runs cave cleanup trips at the Porter Caves multiple times a year. Information and observations collected on these trips, which can be found on the group’s website, report finding habitat-harming things like fast food containers, broken beer bottles, vandalism and bonfire remnants strewn throughout the caves, particularly around Halloween.

As a result of use by students and other cave visitors, uncontrolled access is considered the single biggest threat to species in the Porter Caves. Although Empire Cave was at one point gated, cave enthusiasts blasted off the barriers to gain cave access. Since then, the university installed a ladder making for easier access to the caves.

Dayton said that if the area is not better protected, staff and volunteers from the UCSC Natural Reserve might once again close the caves to the public.

Retired Earth Science Professor Gerald Webber notes that after years of mistreatment, however, true restoration of the caves would be no easy fix and would likely have to involve better educating the public about the caves and the unique life thriving within them.

“The caves can still produce an interesting habitat for animals that are unique. And as far as cave systems go, if you keep people out of them, it’s better for the [habitat]. But if people go in, [we must] make sure they know what they’re doing,” Weber said.

Many students, however, are completely unaware of the harm being done—and what’s at stake.

A second year Stevenson literature student who didn’t want to share her name admitted that she had gone into the Empire Cave drunk with her friends and a boom box. She went on to say that she had no regrets about going there and that she might return again despite the risk of disrupting or even eliminating a threatened species.

“I don’t think spiders are very high on anyone’s list of priorities,” she said.

Second year Porter psychology student Kim Brauninger was a first hand witness to similar unawareness on the part of students when she attended a party in Empire Cave.

“It’s a thing of nature,” Brauninger said. “Why do people have to bring fucking beer bottles in [the caves]? Why do they have to desecrate it? It’s really immature to me.”

Brauninger admitted that she, like many students, was initially unaware that the Empire Cave and surrounding caverns housed unique, threatened species.

Fifth year marine biology and environmental studies student Lauren Fieberg ventured to the caves for the first time her freshman year and had no idea that threatened species lived in them. She believes that if students at UCSC were better educated about the fragility of Porter Cave ecosystem, they would respond positively.

“There have been a lot of restoration projects on campus, and I think a lot of students are environmentally conscious,” Fieberg said. “[With increased education] students would be more conscious of their habits in the cave, especially involving species that are endemic to that cave.”

After visiting the Cave Gulch caverns a few times, spelunker Severson believes that they may be beyond restoration or repair — at least in terms of geological structures — comparing them to the better-preserved California Caverns cave systems located in central California, about two hours southeast of Sacramento.

“I’ve been to the California Caverns, and those have been very well protected,” Severson said. “You can’t just go in there and freestyle your way around. You have to be with a guide, and they are very protective a lot of the cave formations that are in there.”

Severson and geologist Gerald Weber both emphasized that all of the Porter Caves, especially Empire Cave, have suffered enormous stress through the years and no longer contain any stalagmites or stalagtites, mineral deposit formations formed over long periods of time that can be found on the floors and ceilings of well- preserved caves. Many people believe that if easy access to the caves remains, these unique formations will never return.

“The [caves] that are readily open to the public—I think they’re pretty useless,” Weber said. “The stalactites and stalagmites are not going to grow back.”

Many of the individuals trying to better protect the caves say they are motivated by the extensive amount of information and unique learning opportunities created by studying cave species and habitats.

“We need more work done on the basic science of these animals,” Dayton explained. “There has been a lot of science done on the cave. We need to build on that and use that information to better educate people about the caves and make better informed cave management decisions. The caves need more protection.”

With the caves still open to the public, many preservationists and other concerned individuals have suggested that an informational sign be placed outside of the cave entrances asking visitors to be respectful and mindful of the habitats and species within.

“When most human beings see a spider, they think ‘Oh, I’m going to kill that thing.’” Severson said. “So it might be worth posting some sort of placard outside the cave to educate the general public before they go in.”

Dayton says that the UCSC Natural Reserve staff has been working this summer to create an informational sign in the hopes that it will help curtail destruction and disruption within the caves.

Barry Sinervo, one of Dayton’s colleagues, has been involved in molecular research focused on a specific type of salamander found in the Porter Caves. Sinervo hopes his research will reveal whether the cave salamander represents a different species or a sub-species of the Pacific Giant Salamander found elsewhere in the Santa Cruz region.

In an email from France, where he is currently studying lizards, Sinervo said that he would like students to respect the caves so that biologists like him can continue their research. He offered some cautionary advice to those students who plan on venturing into the caves – or want them to continue to be open to the public.

“Keep the caves clean, leave as little a footprint as possible, respect life in all forms,” Sinervo said. “Do not harass the insect and invertebrate life or the cave will end up being closed to everyone except researchers.”