Having heard mention of the McNeely Lake/Durrett/Cooper Cave complex at McNeely Lake Park, I decided to do some investigating and wandering. McNeely Lake cave is visible from the park road and of no appreciable length. I’m not sure what caves are named Durrett and Cooper. We did find one other cave in McNeely, down past the spillway. It’s on a hillside above a tributary and hard to spot.
Yes, there really is a cave in there.
That’s just as well because I don’t recommend going in this hole. We were immediately confronted with the sight and smell of piles of (most likely) raccoon poop. We soldiered on for sixty or so feet, but our enthusiasm waned as the ceiling lowered to a foot and a half crawl through a floor dusted in dried-out poo. We backed out at this point and did not push this cave to its end.
Even if this is Cooper cave, it will always be Pooper cave to us.
If you go, watch out for the aquatic life in the cave stream. It’s a small stream, but I guess the raccoons provide a wealth of organic debris for the critters. As in any outdoor activity, do your best to tread lightly.
Here is a putty root orchid we saw on the return trip. Amazingly, it was growing on a fallen log, the bulb only shielded by a fallen leaf.
Puttyroot orchid
Wow!! I have rode in McNeely park for years and rode and rode and rode and I never knew there was a cave there much less three caves!!!
How does one find this cave?
While I normally give detailed directions, in this case I left them somewhat vague. An aerial or topo map (which can be found online) will reveal the tributaries and a little exploring downstream of the dam will reveal its location.
I grew up around this area back in the 70′s and 80′s. It was fenced off at one point but even then, became pooper cave…
I also found this cave but couldn’t go in do to the two baby turkey vulture hissing at us. I’m sure the cave was full of vulture poo also. Ticks are so bad there.