A message from Hilltromper
First things first: if you are going to go to Porter Caves, you have to promise us one thing: That you will leave with some garbage.
We're very serious. Bring a bag, and while you are witnessing this marvel, pick up some trash.
The first thing you will notice about Porter Caves is that it is covered with graffiti and trashed. Unfortunately a bunch of assholes, reportedly UCSC freshmen, use this place as a party hole. One reason that's so unfortunate is that Porter Caves is really an amazing place.
The second thing to know about Porter Caves is at it is home to several endemic species (that means they live nowhere else), which the jerkoff partiers who trash the place are actually threatening.
If you are willing to go to the cave to help clean it, then you will be able to experience a very rare thing in this part of the world. If you aren't going to go clean up, please stay away.
Apologies for being such a hardass about this. We just hate people who don't respect Nature.
—Eric Johnson,
Hilltromper CEO
About Porter Caves
by Stuart Thornton
The campus of the University of California-Santa Cruz feels a lot like a park, with its redwood groves and sweeping views of Monterey Bay. Another amazing asset of the 6,651-acre campus is Porter Caves, a series of three underground chambers located in a section of woods right off Empire Grade Road near UCSC’s Porter College.
The adventure begins by climbing down a ladder through a hole in a concrete block within sight of the mountainous two-lane road. This is a beginner’s cave that doesn’t go back real far, but visitors can get a feel for spelunking while checking out graffiti left behind by generations of students who apparently didn't know that defacing unique natural features is kind of lame. And these caves are in fact unique: they are home to the Dollof cave spider and the Empire Cave pseudoscorpion, species thought to exist nowhere else.
It is best to go in the dry summer and fall months, because the rains can transform the cave into a dangerous mudslide that ends in a large subterranean pool.
Across the road is “Hell Hole,” a tighter, more technical cave that is rumored to continue all the way down to the Santa Cruz shoreline.
GOOD FOR Amateur spelunkers; people who like telling scary stories
NOT SO GOOD IF YOU'RE claustrophobic
YOUR MOM WOULD TELL YOU to not wear your Sunday best. The cave can be quite muddy.
IF YOU’RE LUCKY YOU’LL be alone in the dark with your spelunking team.
Porter College, UC Santa Cruz, CA, 95064.
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