Crossroads 10/26/2025
Scott Buchanan Reporting:
On a beautiful Sunday morning seven of us convened in the small parking area at Crossroads Cave in Bath County Va. Many greetings and salutations were had as we geared up for our imminent subterranean adventure. Ihab, Harry, Greg W, Kristin, Ben, Mike, and myself happily headed towards the cave from the parking lot and entered down inside around 9:50ish.
The entrance room is immediately large and impressive as far as I’m concerned. It still gets me excited everytime I drop down into it. Headlamp beams bounced brightly off the walls and ceilings as everyone soaked in the stupendous stone views. We semi-quickly made our way down into the depths of Crossroads. I like to think we made great time and we all eventually made it to what is called “short man’s shortcut” to see if we could squeeze through.
I have been to the exact spot numerous times myself and pushed myself every which way I could to no success. However Kristin was able to shove herself through the “8 inch gap” (arguably lower) and back through to us. She got to see parts of the cave the rest of us could only hear her describe as she stood victorious on the other side of the pinch. Greg was able to get himself into the gap and get his ribcage through and was all but through. He stayed responsible and didn’t proceed incase it was more difficult to return.
We turned back around and headed back upwards towards what is labeled “the maze” and “the wells”. As we headed in that direction the formations became increasing beautiful and intricate. Shining white stalagmites contrasted against clay mud hues and blackened tipped cave popcorn. We all proceed farther than I had went previously in that direction and we laid flagging tape down to mark our return path.
We got to a nice sized room slash hallway where I decided to stop and have a Pop-Tart and a Redbull (Pink Edition). After a brief intermission we proceeded to view the clone of the Chernobyl elephants foot formation with the cutest rimstone dam pool you ever did see. We then turned around and began our return trip to the surface world. A harrowing adventure filled with grand tales and wondrous excitement of underground euphoria.
We exited the cave around 1:43pm-ish. Quickly gathered for a photo op then cleaned ourselves up for our return drives back to the homelands. Excellent trip with an excellent crew to explore and learn with.
