Round Top Summit Cave, Washington County
Geology:
Round Top Summit Cave is developed along joints in the thick-bedded, knobby black limestone of the Keyser Formation.
Description:
Round Top Summit Cave is one of the larger and more interesting Washington County caves. Approximately 600 feet of passage is known to exist; most of it is high, narrow fissure-type passage, lined with vast amounts of well developed cave coral. This cave is not recommended for novices or heavy persons, due to the many narrow and jagged squeezes, vertical drops, and tricky climbs.
The entrance is 5 feet wide and 3 feet high. It opens to a slightly larger passage which slopes steeply south for 20 feet, where a vertical drop of 40 feet brings one into a high fissure about 10 feet wide. At the southwest end of this fissure is a steep slope leading down to a crawlway. The cave continues for about 500 feet to the southwest as a series of high narrow passages trending S. 10º W. and S. 60º W. They are lined throughout with dense cave coral and occasionally some flowstone. Several drops are encountered, which lead down to lower levels of the same passage, the deepest being 30 feet. The cave ends in breakdown, an estimated 100 feet below the entrance.
Click on a cave name or a number on the map for more information
- (10) Crystal Grottoes
- (19) Fairview Cave
- (21) Groundhog Cave
- (40) Hogmaw Cave
- (26) Howell Cave
- -- joint-controlled development
- (29) Keefer Rd. Cave
- (33) Mt. Aetna Cave
- (45) Round Top Cave #8
- (44) Round Top Summit Cave
- (46) Schetromph Cave
- (47) Snivelys Caves
- (49) Two Locks Cave
- (24) Winders Cave