Jellico Mountain in Tennessee

[Tony Anders]

Hey all your fellow cavers

I was looking at the topo maps around this area, looking for a possible place to find new caverns for exploration closer to home, or well at least less than an hour away. I remember there is a decent size mountain to the south of us about 40 mins. I was curious is anyone has ever seen caves in the Jellico mountain range. I am not asking for locations, I am just wondering if there is any there.

I have tried to check for geological maps on Tennessee and the area. I haven't had any luck yet.

Would this be a good place look for more caves, or a waste of time. I know someone here is bound to have heard of or been to some caves if there is any there.

Thanks again.

[L Roebuck]

Hey Tony did I read this part right?

" I am asking for locations "

[Tony Anders]

OOPS, I corrected it, Thanks Lynn.

must be old age on my part slipping up on me for not proofing before I post.

I know we don't disclose cave locations on open forum.

[L Roebuck]

You are welcome. I thought it was a typo.

I haven't yet made it to the Jellico mountain range so I have no clue if it is a good cave area or not. But hey it never hurts to ridgewalk areas you think might be good karst areas!

You have to ridgewalk a lot of miles to discover new caves...... ;D

[Tony Anders]

Yea, that is why I like backpacking, I just wish I could carry my caving gear with me on my backpacking trips. But I am trying to get my base weight of my back down, and that pretty much puts Cave gear at home to do that..

[L Roebuck]

Ah my friend but that's the difference between ridgewalking and backpacking. When ridgewalking you always carry your caving gear so you can check out any caves, holes, cracks, etc that you might find.

[Sharon Faulkner]

Hi Tony,

I'm not sure about the Jellico area, but just a bit west of Jellico you'll find the Big South Fork/Pickett State Park area, which does have some known caves to explore. Several caves are located inside park boundaries, which if memory serves has recently been extended to include more acreage.

I have bounced a few pits in the area, 100' Highland Plunge and 180' Hell Hole, which may have collapsed by now. Here is an excerpt from the trip report I wrote after doing the cave:

Everytime your feet touched the wall, rocks moved. They didn't just slightly move or wiggle, they became totally dislodged. After I got to the bottom of the pit (landing on recently fallen rocks) I could see why this pit was named Hell Hole. The walls are just massive stacks of broken rock and boulders being held together by spit. The pit formed along a brecciated fault and is slowly falling in upon itself. We climbed out as gently as we could, trying not to knock rocks off. This is one of those pits that you only desire to do once.

Mill Cave (also in Overton County) is a nice horizontal cave located in the general area. I don't remember much about this cave except we encountered a large owl roosting in the entrance room of the cave.

Hope this helps a bit.