Hike Meeker Peak and Leviathan Cave Basin and Range National Monument, NV

Sep 11, 2023 — Located within Basin and Range National Monument and the Worthington Mountains Wilderness, Leviathan Cave is one of many public caves in the expanse of Nevada. Entering the cave actually seems to be encouraged, indicated by a small photo and a snippet about the subterranean wonderland on a kiosk at the trailhead. Make sure to be prepared with the right equipment, including helmets and lights, and inform someone outside the cave of your plans. Leviathan Cave is a remote gem that requires some route-finding to reach, a rappel, and navigation when within its depths. I've waited to plan a trip out here for years because finding a friend interested in driving so far north of Las Vegas for a small cave like this one never seemed to work out. I also didn't want to see only Leviathan Cave without also tacking on Meeker Peak, located just to the south. I should have guessed that Matt would be willing to drive a million years from Phoenix to hang with me and check out both of these destinations.

Just some quick, responsible caving notes before describing the route. Caves are fragile and require care when entering. Practice "Leave No Trace" principles, do not disturb or remove any natural features, and respect the cave's delicate ecosystem. Avoid unnecessary noise and other disturbances that could disrupt wildlife and keep your group size small. Leviathan Cave may be temporarily or permanently closed to protect its resources or for safety reasons, so check first before making the long trip out. It's also important to wear shoes that have not been worn in other caves to prevent the spread of serious bat-killing diseases.

Any car can make it here (37.85378, -115.50180), where high brush requires some clearance as you head west. Continue north here (37.84185, -115.55978), then head go west here (37.84892, -115.56010) to the end of the road. We started west up a casual slope with hints of a social trail, but we quickly dropped into the wash to the left. The wash was usually pretty rocky, but we manged to find sections of open hiking. Ahead we could see a major cliff band with a major notch. This notch is our goal for overcoming the cliff band and accessing all the goodies we had in store for today.

We headed left at a fork toward the notch, where we passed some (hopefully) dud ordnance remains within the drainage. The drainage quickly becomes more of a loose gully that requires boulder-hopping and scrambling up dirty gravel nonsense. While rarely unpleasant, the hike was steep and it only grew more so as we ascended. Often there was a social trail to assist in the ascent. Debris from years of fallen trees and rockslides slowed us further. Higher up there was a short cliff band that could be overcome on the right using some Class 2/3 scrambling. Toward the head of the gully before reaching the notch, the terrain grew steeper still and includes some light Class 3. Once above the steep ascent through the notch, we followed a social trail up the subsequent slope and onto the north ridge of Meeker Peak.

Matt and I decided we wanted to visit Meeker Peak first before exploring Leviathan Cave. If you're just interested in the cave, this would be the spot to just drop down to the west and head to it. But how could the lure of grabbing a summit escape you? We headed south, side-hilling on the western slope well below the ridge. We decided to stay low since the cliff bands above seemed severe and the side-hilling wasn't annoying at all. Aside from a short Class 3 cliff band and various Class 2 obstacles, we were able to avoid difficulties and reach the ridgeline again. Meeker Peak was just south, and it looked like it might prove to be trickier than we anticipated.

An annoying Class 2 slope covered in loose scree/talus led us up to the base of Meeker Peak's protective cliff band. Both the west and east sides of the cliff band dropped drastically, leaving only the north side as a potential ascent option. This was likely the only weakness on the entirety of the peak's perimeter. After poking around at our options, I started first since I wanted to just feel around before committing to this climb. I was surprised at how solid the limestone was, and that there were a couple of key ledges that served as footholds. The 20-foot endeavor went at Class 4, but it was far more tame than it appeared from below. Class 2/3 led us along the remainder of the ridgeline to the summit of Meeker Peak.

After backtracking from the summit, we descended toward Leviathan Cave on a dirt slope. There was one small cliff band we had to find a way around, Class 3. We emerged at the top of the sinkhole that allows access to Leviathan Cave, a remarkable gap in the ground that we gawked at for a while before dropping around on the left to reach the lowest point. Here we set up a rappel using a large boulder as our anchor. The drop was only about 30 feet, but there are various anchor options you can choose from, so I recommend bringing a 100' rope. The first 10 feet from the lip are vertical, but the bottom section is just a series of Class 3 ledges.

A social trail leads around to the left and down into a false cave, worth exploring for its various formations and very cool tall ceiling at its end. It was at this time I realized my headlamp was basically useless, so I was exceptionally happy Matt had invested in one that illuminated the cave farther than five feet ahead of us. I kept to his heels, constantly begging him to stop so I could take photos every couple of seconds. As always, he was a good sport about my pestering. I don't know anything about geology, so it was just cool to enjoy the various shapes and colors. I tried to pay attention to Matt's ramblings about rocks and minerals and... rocks, most of which my brain quickly forgot. He did tell me a cute mnemonic to remember stalagmites and stalactites: stalactites have to hold on "tight" to the ceiling so they don't fall off.

After exiting the false cave, we hugged the wall at the base of the sinkhole and dropped deeper where we were met with two dark hole options. Keeping right led into another false cave that basically asended steeply to nowhere, while keeping left brought us into the mouth of Leviathan Cave. The main chamber of the cave is reached through a narrow crawl space. Likely anyone can crawl through, but doing so required some effort to not get torn up. I'm super smart and chose to wear shorts. The cave is larger than we thought it would be, but really is only one chamber with various points of interest. A slope ascends from the entrance up to a wet hamlet housing tons of fragile cave formations. Another slope leads down to a set of small pools that captivated us for a long time. Incredible features are scattered throughout and we somehow managed to spend hours just enjoying the space. Photos below will describe better what we saw.

As incredible as this chamber was, we were ready to head back to the cars since we still had a lot of driving to do. With dread, I realized I had no idea where the exit was. Without skipping a beat, Matt confidently led us in the direction that he felt was right. It turned out to be incorrect. I instantly realized the sport of caving isn't for me as panic set in. We only had Matt's bright headlamp and my dinky light source. The entrance tunnel was pretty small. How would we find it? We found it in under a minute, but it felt like an eternity as I tried to hold myself together. After all, there were only so many places it could be in this single chamber, but I couldn't believe how turned around we'd gotten. Now that we knew where the exit was, we took some more time to just acclimate ourselves to the layout to see how we got mixed up.

I chose to handline our rope to get out of the sinkhole, while Matt freesoloed the short climb. We packed our gear and started back up the slope. There is an alternative route option that skips the notch ascent we took to reach Leviathan Cave that I wanted to check out on the way back. It wraps north around the major cliff band, but it was a dumb and tedious route that made little sense compared to the notch route, so I removed it from my map. I recommend just returning back through the notch.