Spelunking In Walker County Georgia.

If you live in the SE part of the United States, or visit Georgia on occasion and you are someone that is interested in Spelunking and Caving, then one place not to miss is Petty John Case, located in Walker County. 

It is located on the east side of Pigeon Mountain in the Plateaus of NW Georgia in the Appalachians. There are a number of different caves in the area, including the one best known, Ellison Cave.

Ellison Cave is famous for its long drop freefall pit which plummets 586 feet.

The Pigeon mountain area is located just to the west of La Fayette. The Cumberland Mountains and Cumberland Plateau is a region that stretches from Alabama to Georgia through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world and then down into Tennessee.

PettyJohn Case is the 119th longest case, about midway on the list of 242 caves on the registry for length. It is very long, and over a mile at 6,074 feet. All of the different water that enters the cave are constant and water table and water levels due not fluctuate very much.

There are waterfalls to see, several challenging climbs and different passageways that are available to deal with for people that love a Caving Challenge.

The Entrance room of PettyJohn Cave is over 500 feet in length, about 50 feet to the top and averages about 30 feet in length. After the main entrance Cavers can then maneuver and climb to the next level that features an “upper formation room,” that connects to the ceiling level.

Some people like to participate in the challenging climbs that are available such as up to the Raccoon climb, the largest room in the medium level of PettyJohn Caves.

Middle levels in the Pettyjohn caves are passages that are totally dry, making about 1/3 of the volume of the caves and they extend under the mountain to the north.

If you are very experienced and looking for a difficult climb, then you should then travel over to the Echo Room climb. The Echo Room is actually the largest of the rooms in the caving system, a huge area about 200 feet by 100 feet with extremely high ceilings overhead.

If you are truly a hard core caver with a lot of experience, there are some long caving and spelunking opportunities available  There are four of them, each about 14 hours long: The Outer Limits, The Discovery Room, Schreiber’s Extension, and the Labyrinth.

The Pettyjohn Caves offer both guided and unguided tours for those that are qualified to climb alone. You should always take a guide the first time that you attempt caving or spelunking in a new area, it is good common sense and wise for safety.