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AKA UT Grotto

@undergroundtexasgrotto

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Cave exploration, education, and conservation since 1951. Reach out if you're interested in caving. See you underground!

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A UTG platoon twenty cavers strong recently attended the 2026 NCRC Orientation to Cave Rescue. This event is a crash course in safe caving and rescue techniques taught over a weekend at the TCMA's Deep and Punkin Nature Preserve. Friday night featured a vertical caving clinic, Saturday was a mix of classroom learning and scenarios, and Sunday was a mock rescue, or three.

The UTG appreciates the volunteer coordinators, volunteer instructors and specialists, our esteemed chef, Ace, and the students who spent their weekend Learning how to be safer cavers, especially those who chose this weekend as their introduction to caving.

You can learn more at an upcoming Wednesday night grotto meeting. UTGrotto.org. by @undergroundtexasgrotto

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16 days ago

UTG cavers have had a lot to celebrate this month with the International Day of Caves and Karst, a UNESCO holiday dedicated to our favorite topic, the 75th Grotto birthday party, not a UNESCO holiday, and the successful recovery of the password to this account.

Happy birthday Underground Texas Grotto! The world has changed greatly since the days of the first UTG cavers and while we do dress differently for rappelling practice now, the legacy of exploration, knowledge, and conservation continues unchanged into the present day.

This club has housed many legendary cave explorers, one of whom was kind enough to share these photos. Thanks Terry Raines! by @undergroundtexasgrotto

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a month ago

The Brackenridge Field Lab welcomed us into one of their classrooms for a packed-house presentation by karst hydrogeologist and ordinary caver Dr. George Veni. We had 70 attendees, a pizza party, and a very gracious host. Thanks BFL for providing us a venue and thanks to George for the excellent presentation! taken in Brackenridge Field Laboratory by @undergroundtexasgrotto

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6 months ago

After a surreptitious winter break, we're back to digging up a storm, just in time for the spring rains to show us where the water goes. This feature is a new dig in our weekly rotation with a lot of potential. We have no idea what we'll discover down below, and we're excited to find out. The cave owner is an excellent host and is just as excited about their cave as we are. We'll shout them out next Tuesday when we return.

If you're interested in becoming a member or joining our weekly digs, come to a meeting and subscribe to the mailing list at UTgrotto.org.

See you underground! by @undergroundtexasgrotto

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6 months ago

We may be on holiday for Spring Break, but things are going down at BFL. Literally.

Researchers studied and expanded a hole discovered previously in the field, suspecting it may lead to an underground cave. 🕳️ Volunteer support came from Underground Texas Grotto, a non-profit that does cave explorations across Texas and Mexico.

The team is just two feet short of declaring the site an official cave. 😲 We'll keep you posted on what we find out at next month's dig!

#cave #karst #underground #exploration #discovery taken in Brackenridge Field Laboratory by @undergroundtexasgrotto

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7 months ago

With Thanksgiving break sneaking up quicker every time we look away, this is a good opportunity to highlight Barton Springs University. This event is a public pop-up environmental education fair hosted by Save Our Springs where, for one day only, over a thousand students and civilians gain access to dozens of hands on activities, speakers, a concert, tables, and Taco Deli to learn about the many entities supporting conservation here in Austin. Among them, the UTG has attended for several years, always in full recruitment mode. At our station we were accompanied by Dr. Nico Hauwert with his artifical cave, teaching hydrogeology with a dye trace activity.
Big thanks to Greg, Izzy, Nico, as well as all the cave and groundwater professionals who work at the city and the county for rounding out the cave representation at BSU this year. by @undergroundtexasgrotto

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a year ago

Under the cover of darkness, a congregation of grotto members shuffled down a steep pathway to conduct our yearly Halloween rites deep within the earth.

After what felt like an appropriate amount of chanting, we recited scripture from Karst of the Urban Corridor ($20 at the TSS store), asked a magic 8 ball how many new members we should expect in the coming year, and took a group picture. To close our meeting, legendary UTG caver Terry Raines told the tale of first exploring the palatial cave chambers we were standing in.

We're ever grateful to Inner Space Cavern for hosting our annual meeting and we encourage you to stop by for a tour. It's a beautiful show cave hiding beneath I-35.

Shout out to Ace, our guide for the evening, thank you for working after hours and for showing us a great time. And to our dear Enzo, current club president and former Inner Space guide, thank you for coordinating and existing. taken in Inner Space Cavern by @undergroundtexasgrotto

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a year ago

UTG members attended the 10th annual Hydro-Geo Workshop to volunteer, teach modules, and most importantly to learn! This weekend event is an awesome opportunity for students, a great venue for presenting research, and a rewarding way to spend a weekend for everybody else. Bexar Grotto members like Geary Schindel are instrumental in organizing the workshop hosted at Cave Without a Name and cavers from all all over the state show up to help.

These photos of the keynote presentation, cave biology module, wild cave tour, camping tutorial, and astronomy lesson just scratch the surface of the opportunities at Hydro-Geo. Whether you're interested in geophysics, bird identification, or how to change a tire, there's something for everybody! Look out for announcements for next year. by @undergroundtexasgrotto

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a year ago

Few sights underground are cooler than watching kids experiencing it for the first time. Most of them will have had their fill and move on, but for one or two, this trip may have sparked a lifelong interest. It's a privilege to facilitate the next generation discovering their passions, fields of study, or careers.

I got more out of this trip than altruistically kindling an appreciation for nature in the minds of America's youth, though. I also learned a lot of new slang. "These kneepads have level 10 rizz," for instance. I.. would have never thought to say that. The future is bright. by @undergroundtexasgrotto

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a year ago

Aaron and I represented UTG at the Vertical Training Commission Level 1 course in San Antonio this past weekend. You can't perfectly simulate the challenges of vertical caving outside of a cave, but 1.5 million mosquitos and an oppressive heat index provided the right conditions for learning under pressure. It was a great group of students, and we're grateful to Geary, Matt, and Chris, the paltry few VTC trainers we currently have in Texas for putting the event on. Plans are in the works for an Austin class later in the year. We'll miss out on the mosquitos by then, but maybe we can get rained on or something. by @undergroundtexasgrotto

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a year ago

The official start to summer is barreling toward Texas, which means tabling season is upon us! Fortunately, this weekend, our table was inside so we could ease into the heat. We answer as many invites as we can, and events like Discovery Day at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center are at the top of our list. While crowds of parents circled up their wagons of karst-curious kids to loose volleys of cave questions at our fearless officers, some of us slipped out the back door to lead a sinkhole tour around the property, sharing the science and allure of the karst features beneath our feet, and soon after that concluded, I went to collect my prize for longest run-on sentence. If you're a would-be, could-be or should-be caver of any age or creed, come visit our table. We've got rocks to pet and cave trips to take you on. by @undergroundtexasgrotto

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a year ago

Happy National Caves and Karst Day! We were too busy celebrating that we barely got the post out. We're very grateful for our community, but on this, the holiest of days, we also express enormous gratitude for the special places we are privileged to visit, to the creatures that call it home, and to the inland sea 90 million years ago that made it all possible. by @undergroundtexasgrotto

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a year ago