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Youth Group Visitations At GSP

Are you a coordinator for a scout, youth, adventure, or education organization? Do you yearn to don a helmet and learn about the world beneath us while getting all nice and muddy? If so, please fill out our Wild Caving Outreach Form and our Caving Outreach Coordinator will be in contact with you to confirm your request and go over our program in full detail including providing a list of required basic caving gear. If you have an immediate question the Caving Outreach Coordinator can be contacted at .

Every year, all year long, we welcome Boy and Girl Scouts, middle school, high school, and college classrooms (Geology and Biology and Chemistry! Oh, my!), and school, college, and community outdoor and science clubs to join our volunteer cave guides in wild caving adventures, a tour through the Great Saltpetre Cave, and camping at the Great Saltpetre Cave Preserve. There is no cost for caving and we ask for a modest camping donation of $9 per person, per night, to assist in the upkeep of the Preserve. Our volunteer guides are cavers with the Greater Cincinnati Grotto, Blue Grass Grotto, Dayton Underground Grotto, and Central Ohio Grotto ... chapters of the National Speleological Society.

We have a designated camping area for organizations which includes a shelter, fire rings, and plenty of room for tents, hammocks, and parking as well as access to latrines, potable water, and a shower house that is open in the warmer months. Firewood can be scavenged from the woods, but please protect our Preserve and adhere to state regulations by not bringing your own - tree-killing insects and diseases are no fun! Our Caving Outreach Coordinator can help you find a source for local firewood if needed.

Due to White Nose Syndrome (WNS) moving through the bat population, we have instituted decontamination procedures as a precaution against the spread of the disease from human carriers. If your gear, clothing, or boots have been used in a WNS-affected region do not bring them to the preserve. If your gear, clothing, or boots have previously been in any other cave they must be decontaminated before entering Great Saltpetre Cave or any of the wild caves in the area. Please refer to the NSS website at https://caves.org/WNS/ for the most current information on decontamination procedures and information about White Nose Syndrome.

Service projects both large and small are available at the Preserve and we'd love to have your help and support! Please refer to the Wild Caving Outreach Form for the current list of large projects. Great Saltpetre Cave Preserve provides matching funds for large service projects.

Please read the Preserve Rules, the Cave Rules, and the GSP Management Plan. You must also fill out a Waiver for each person who will be visiting Great Saltpetre Preserve.

The Caver's Creed:

Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time.