John Guilday Caves Nature Preserve

New Trout Cave was great! You'll definitely get dirty but it's cool and dry. Super fun first caving experience.

Took screenshots others took of the parking and trail entrance cause it is hard to see the sign behind the trees. It's a steep hike/climb some of the way but it's really not far to New Trout cave. I am a big guy and I could go through New Trout and Hamilton caves no problem but I would definitely recommend kneepads for Hamilton cave cause if you're tall like me you gotta crawl on your hands and knees for a while through those tubes to get to where you can stand. Also Hamilton has lots of small stalactites so I'd bring a helmet if I went again, I just had a beanie on this time but if I did it again I'd definitely bring a helmet and kneepads. New trout is super easy and you don't need anything special for it till you get way deeper in maybe. Always just watch your head and take it slow if you're not wearing a hard helmet. Oh yeah one last thing is Hamilton has tons of crickets in the entrance area! I screamed like a little girl when I slid in face first and found myself in the lair of the swarm. It was like an episode of fear factor and I saw my life flash before my eyes before letting out the loudest bloodcurdling shriek of my life. I was just shocked more than anything haha the crickets stayed frozen as you go by and they only are in the entrance and about 10 feet in then there's a room you can stand in with no crickets after that. That was only Hamilton cave and we went in July so it's peak bug season

Probably one of the best cave systems in the county. It consists of three separate caves: Hamilton, Trout and New Trout. You can no longer enter Trout because it houses an endangered bat population. I have been in both the ones that are open. New Trout shows obvious signs of salt peter mining. The mouth to this cave is like walking into a fridge in the summer. The beginning is kinda wet. Then you go farther back and encounter the drop part of this cave with giant rocks forming the tunnel. And eventually you get to the back portion which is very dusty. Hamilton is my favorite. You had better be prepared for a hike though. It is moist throughout and consists of a almost road map straight maze system. The back portion is more interesting.

These are my favorite caves in West Virginia! They are great for beginners yet also have enough features to be fun for even advanced cavers. Hamilton is an easy cave to get turned around in, so make sure you bring a map or have a non-destructive (deck of cards) way to mark your route out.

Absolutely amazing and I’m totally grateful to the owner(NSS) and everyone else involved who has played a role in making my experience and everyone else’s possible. In this day and age everyone is so concerned with turning a quick buck that anytime a cave system of this size is found and made public it gets turned into a tourist trap and gets ruined and exploited but not the case here.nnI will say finding this location was a bit tricky because there are no posted signs advertising where to go other then for a little erosion warning sign nailed to a tree along the side of the road stating the trail is 150 yards down the road to the right of it. Parking is on the side of the road where there is a small pull off area. Once you know where to look finding the clearing for the trail isn’t to difficult to find. There is also a small bolder at the opening of the trail you will notice and can look for.nnI only had enough time to fully explored New Trout but I definitely plan on returning to explore Hamilton and hopefully getting permission to explore Trout cave at a later date.nnNew trout is listed as 2 miles long but it really didn’t seem that long but that could just be due to my excitement level. I chose New Trout to explore first because I was alone and from what I gathered it was the safer of the two available options because Hamilton breaks off into many different directions and appears to be tighter unlike new trout which is basically just one long straight tunnel you can mostly walk through. I strongly recommend if your not prepared with hard hat and decent clothing then don’t risk the enjoy. I found a clump of blonde hair on a sharp rock from someone who wasn’t obviously wearing a helmet. You will hit your head repeatedly if you journey deep enough