The Grate Tunnel
Here's another tunnel that stayed on my "to do" list (and GPS) for quite a while.  Dani and I just happened upon it, and i never felt like taking the drive up here when I was in Dallas.  However, Explorer Phil and I already had a full night with Threeway Tunnel, so we decided to just do a quick and easy one.  It turned out to be really quick!
Ducks at the base of the outfall.
Phil in hot pursuit!  Okay, not really.  What he's after are...
...swallows!
Here's a close-up he got of one.  These guys really manage to hover about, not quite as graceful as hummingbirds, but they don't exactly smash into walls.
Here's another shot of the same one in flight.

These guys makes nests out of mud that they stick high on the walls.
After we got past the swooping swallow and the giant tarantula and the quicksand, we finally found ourselves beneath the grate.

(Not a bad shot for no tripod, eh?)
Another awesome shot done freehand.
But then just ahead... dullsville!  The tunnel narrowed dramatically.  This is always a bad sign.
It only went on a short distance, basically just under the road.  I never would have suspected it would have ended so quickly.

I also never would have suspected it would have been quite so slick right here, but I ended up slipping and landing on my ass.  Being soaking wet, freezing, and sore kind of finished off the night if we weren't exhausted from all the biking earlier.
Alexplored 4/6/2008.  Some pics by Explorer Phil.
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