The Cadomin Cave can be found just outside the town site of Cadomin, Alberta. This area was once booming with mining activity in the early 1900's but is now the site of summer cottages and homes to workers of two nearby mines still in operation. The trail head to the cave is easy to miss. Excellent campsites can be found at the Whitehorse Campground approximately 5 km south from the Cadomin cave parking lot. From the parking lot one hikes on a forested trail that winds up the slope. It eventually meets up with another trail and you continue further up a winding creek bed. The trail gains in altitude throughout the hike as you enter a valley surrounded on three sides by the adjacent mountain slopes. Soon the trail breaks away from the creek bed and you are faced with a relatively steep climb up the slope. Eventually you will meet the tree line, but the trail will go on for another 200m before it finally meets up with the opening of the cave. The opening to the cave is somewhat hidden but most trails lead to it.
At this point we recommend all appropriate caving gear required. After entering the cave it will open up to walls about 10m wide and a ceiling of 5m. 100m in to the cave you come to a T-intersection, and it is absolutely black. We chose to go right and proceeded to what we felt was downhill inside the mountain. Be prepared for some technical maneuvers as you are required to scramble across ledges and cracks in the cave floor by what appeared to be large boulders inside the cave. At this point we just walked, the walls soon start to close in and you are required to get down on your hands and knees to move further in to the cave. This goes on for about 30 minutes to which you finally get to the main gallery. This appeared to be a large room at least 10m high and 20-30m wide. From there we proceeded on in the loop. Looking up roof many dome features are present in the rock, most likely from water erosion. After another 30 minutes we ended back at T intersection completing the loop. From there we left the cave and returned to daylight. After a good break we decided to hike up behind the caves and summited the range of the cave. We then proceeded over the ridge line down to a valley which lead us to the Whitehorse creek and back to our campsite.
