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AMERICAN FORK CANYON--Timpanogos Cave is finally open for the season, three weeks later than usual because of the wet spring.
A snowdrift, 16 feet deep, blocked the trail to Timpanogos Cave this spring, and it took the park staff a week of shoveling by hand to clear the drift. Now that it's open, new safety improvements will greet visitors to the cave.
"We're expecting a large crowd for the Memorial Day weekend. Traditionally it's a very busy weekend for us," said Mike Gosse, the Chief Ranger at Timpanogos Cave National Monument.
Tourists, who make the one-and-a-half mile hike, which includes an elevation climb of more than 1,000 feet, will see changes along the trail.
First they will be greeted by a safety ranger at the trailhead who will share safety tips, make sure visitors are prepared for the strenuous hike, and remind hikers take water with them.
The safety improvements were made in response to two separate accidents last May, including the tragic death of a park service employee and a girl being seriously injured while on a school field trip.
"A stretch of wall is new where the 12-year-old girl fell off the trail here last year, and so we now have a rock wall in this location," said Gosse.
Other areas have temporary wire fences. Crews will begin installing permanent rock walls that will blend in better with the terrain beginning August 1. That will require Timpanogos Cave to be closed Monday through Thursday, so crews can work on installing those permanent rock safety walls.
The cave will be open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through mid-October.
Gosse, who has worked at Timpanogos Cave for 19 years, says it is ultimately up to everyone who hikes the trail to take safety seriously.
"This trail demands your full attention. This trail demands you focus on the trail and where you are walking and unfortunately, when you don't, accidents like this can happen," he said.
There is a reward for those who hike the trail--the spectacular formations inside the cave and the beautiful scenery of American Fork Canyon.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
