Dancehall Cave

This is a 360 video of Dancehall Cave at Maquoketa Caves State Park. ¹With more caves than any state park, Maquoketa Caves is one of Iowa’s most unique outdoor attractions.As one of the state’s earliest state parks, Maquoketa Caves has been a popular destination for picnickers and hikers since the 1860s.

Let’s take a closer look at this cave. This 360 is made from seven images. We will follow the explorer’s path without moving the arrows to see around us.

00:00-00:11

We are starting our walk into the cave. We can see the light, grayish-brown cave wall in front of us. The explorer moves on to the left. At the top of the video it says, “Maquoketa Caves State Park Ice Cave 360”.

00:12-00:21

We move down into the cave. As we move into this lower section of the cave, we begin walking on a man-made concrete path. There is a skinny, large pool of water on our right like we are about to get on a water ride at an amusement park, if there were enough room. As we walk along the concrete walkway, the cave walls move in and out like an accordion. Sometimes the wall is right beside us, sometimes it is on the other side of the skinny pool of water beside us.

00:22-00:28

We walk further into the cave. The cave walls alternate from smooth, light gray to gray with sparkling porcelain shards. We can see the bumpy texture of the walls as we walk. As we move, the cave sides come in and the roof comes down so that it feels like a very tight squeeze in some places.

00:29-01:35

Be careful, the rockwall to our left has jutted out a bit and created a shelf in the wall. At closer inspection, the rock shelf is a light, brownish color in the light of our flashlight and it has dimples and crevices all over it. Above the rock shelf is a large hole like the opening of a sewer tunnel made out of rock. As we consider our options for getting around the rock shelf, we stop to look around. Across from us beside the pool are additional rock walls on the right side of the cave made up of light, brown and white rock.

00:30-00:51

Watch your head. We need to duck down to get around the rock shelf on the left side. It is longer than it first appeared when it jutted out from the cave wall. As we straighten back up from moving around the rock shelf, we look straight ahead of us. The cavern has opened up and we see large shelves of rock like playing cards stacked haphazardly on each side of the opening. The large pool of water is still on our right.

00:51-01:03

As we near what appears to be the end of the walkway, The cave sides close in on us. We are about to walk through an hourglass shaped opening. Almost as if we are part of a real life Russian nesting doll. We turn our head and see a large rock shelf on our right in the cave wall, Like a window seat.

01:03-01:23

We continue through the hourglass shaped opening. As we walk, the cave roof opens up into tall, narrow cubbies like archways in a church.

01:23-01:32

We round the corner and continue our exploration.

01:32-02:18

Once around the corner, we stop to look down the passageway. This section of the cave is darker with what appears to be naturally made skylights in the cave ceiling. The darkness makes you feel like you are in a subway station looking down the track waiting for a train to arrive. In the distance, the man-made walkway is wet. We walk toward the first skylight that is just over the puddle of water on the walkway. As we pass under the skylight, we realize that it is a large spotlight attached to the cave ceiling. Just past the spotlight, the cave gets pitch black. We can see two additional spotlights in the distance, but can’t see the walkway.

02:19 - 02:32

As we get closer to the next spotlight, the light causes the pool of water to glisten, reminding us that it is there. We turn around to take in the blackness of the cavern. We are now in a new section of the cave. We are still on a concrete walkway. The pool of water is now on our left as we continue to explore the cave.

02:33- 02:55

We have entered a section of the cave that makes us feel like the roof is scraping the top of our heads. It is so close that you can make out the dimples and crevices on the light, brown cave ceiling. In this section of the cave, the walls come in and go out like you are trying to stand up in an attic room in the peak section of an old house. The pool is shallowing out enough here that you can see sections of dark mud.

02:55-03:09

As we walk toward the end of the walkway, we have to tilt our head away from the rock wall as it comes in towards us. At the end of the walkway, the walkway opens up into a larger section of the cave and has man-made steps leading up and out of the cave.

03:09 - 03:37

As we begin our climb out of the cave, we need to walk around a road closed sign to get to the set of concrete steps that lead out of the cave. We move up and out of the cave, walking into natural light.

¹“Maquoketa Caves State Park.”Iowa Department of Natural Resources, https://www.iowadnr.gov/Places-to-Go/State-Parks/Iowa-State-Parks/Maquoketa-Caves-State-Park. 2023 Mar. 23.