Sierra Cave: An Underdog Cave in Peñablanca

Sierra Cave is one of the few explored among the 300+ caves in Peñablanca, Cagayan, recently being dubbed as the ‘caving capital’ of the country. It is located at the foot of the Sierra Madre Range near its much more popular sister caves.

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Contents

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Location

Peñablanca, Cagayan, Philippines

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How to get to Sierra Cave

• Get to Tuguegarao City, Cagayan:
  • By air: There are flight bound to Tuguegarao City operated by Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific with approximately an hour travel time.
  • Manila to Tuguegarao City by land:  You can take a bus from Manila with Victory Liner (Kamias), Florida Liner (Sampaloc), Five Star Bus (Cubao), Dalin Liner (Sampaloc), and Deltra Bus Transit to Tuguegarao with approximate travel time of 12 hours give or take. Fare ranges from Php800.00-1000.00 depending if ordinary aircon, deluxe, or sleeper bus.
  • Baguio City to Tuguegarao City by land:  There are daily trip of GMW Trans (location here), Pine Tree Transit (formerly Dangwa Tranco at the back of Baguio Centermall), and Dalin Liner (Gov. Pack Road). GMW Trans follows Ilocos-Cagayan route while Pine Tree Transit and Dalin Liner follow the Pangasinan-Nueva Vizcaya-Isabela-Cagayan route.
  • Vigan City to Tugegarao City: GMW Trans with travel time of approximately 8 hours.
  • Private vehicles: Directions can be easily accessed thru web mapping services and apps such as Google Map, Waze, etc.

• From Tuguegarao City to Sierra Cave, Peñablanca, the following are your options:

Any fees, scheduled trips, routes, or facilities mentioned here are subject to change according to existing and current government, private, or association rules.

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Registration/Drop-off Point

• While Sierra and Callao caves are situated in one area and drop-off points are the same, the registration area as well as fees are different. When you go to Sierra Cave, you need to register at the DENR Office at the Callao Ecotourism Zone, several meters away from the registration area for Callao cave. Bags are left here if you have any, except for valuables. You can also change your spelunking gear if you are not yet wearing them.

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Fees/Rental/Facilities

• Registration fee: Php50.00 (this covers for the registration fee as well as hard hat).
• Guide fee: 300 for a maximum of three persons.
• Head lamp/light rental: Provided by the guide. Better if you can bring your own as source of additional light, especially if you are a large group.
• Knee & elbow pads rental: None.
• Shower facility: Available near the DENR Office.
• Parking fee: single motor/tricycle-Php20.00, private vehicles/PUJs-Php30.00, public utility buses-Php50.00

Any fees, scheduled trips, routes, or facilities mentioned here are subject to change according to existing and current government, private, or association rules.

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Cave Characteristics

• Mineral deposit formations: Abundant
• Underground river: No.
• Bat population: Few.
• Cavern: Continuous
• Human artefacts/remains: None
• Cave floor fill (aside from stone formations): Stone, bat droppings, soil, mud, and pebbles.
• Spelunking duration: 30 minutes to two hours, depending on your pace and point of interest.
• DENR Classification: Class II (DENR Momorandum Circular No. 2012-03). Cave is with areas or portions which have hazardous conditions and contain sensitive geological, archeological, cultural, historical, and biological values or high quality ecosystem. It may be necessary to close sections of these caves seasonally or permanently. It is open to experienced cavers or guided educational tours/visits.

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The Underdog Cave

Obscured by the popularity of its adjacent cave, Sierra Cave in Peñablanca, Cagayan is a protected technical Karst cave which offers beautiful speleothems, fossils, ‘dancing’ in the mud, and a crawl to conclude the journey.

Sierra Cave is one of the few explored among the 300+ caves in Peñablanca, Cagayan, recently being dubbed as the ‘caving capital’ of the country. It is located at the foot of the Sierra Madre Range and near the much more popular Callao Cave. According to the guide who assisted me, Sierra Cave was named from the name of the outdoor club which had first explored it, the Sierra Madre Outdoor Club (SMOC).

Located in western end of the Sierra Madre range, Sierra Cave is one of the 300+ caves in the municipality of Peñablanca in Cagayan which enjoys protection of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) from guano and bird’s nest harvesting, vandalism, taking of speleothems, and illegal entry. This is because the cave is also a part of the wide Peñablanca Protected Landscape and Seascape which prohibits any any of its part from sale, settlement, and exploitation and subject to existing, recognized, and valid private rights, if any there be (Proclamation No. 416, s. 1994). To reassert this, a locked gate was also built on the entrance.

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Of Rocks and Mud

Past the gate and mouth of the cave, you will be immediately greeted with stalagmites and stalactites. You will see more of these from the approximately 700-meter long passage.

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The locals often dubs Sierra cave as a ‘male’ cave unlike the ‘female’ Callao cave. The guide pointed out the presence of rock formation of a male genitalia seen near the entrance of Sierra cave while Callao cave has formations resembling a mother and child as well as the Virgin Mary.

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Unlike other caves with narrow passages like Aran and San Carlos, this cave offers an easy navigation with the continuously wide diameter of the passages. There are only a few times that you’ll need to duck from low-hanging stalactites. Further, the rock formations have two contrasting colors, brown and white. As opposed to the nearly-dead rock formations in its neighboring cave, Sierra Cave is much alive and the speleothems are still growing. Spelothems inside varies from stalactites, stalagmites, helictites, straw, columns, curtains, and others.

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There is a big difference of the ceiling through the passageway. You start with walls and upper part dotted with stalactites then transition to smooth craters then back to sharp-edged calcites.

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Fossils!

Moreover, your guide would never fail to point out the shell fossil in one of the walls. This may indicate that the place had been submerged in the ocean thousands (or maybe even million) of years ago.

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Consequently, towards the dead end of the passage, you’ll come to a muddy area. This is the reason why you need to be in proper attire if you want to go through it. Unlike other caves such as San Carlos, Aran, Capisaan, Sagada, and others, the cave has no flowing river.

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Typically, cave tour guide have their own unique lines and borrowed spiels too. Here, aside from these lines, they also incorporate light tricks. Look at the first image of an ordinary rock below turn into flaming eye sockets. How they did it? Visit the cave and see how.

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At this point, you have an option to trace back your steps out of the cave or exit through the 2 feet in diameter “Celica’s Passage”. Do not forget to ask why it was named “Celica’s Passage” if the guide forgot to explain it.

Other near notable caves are Callao, San Carlos, Odessa-Tumbali, Rok, Jackpot, among others.

Finally, while this cave is not much explored by other Peñablanca visitors, the standard registration and guide fee is modest enough to cover a technical cave spelunking which offers a myriad of live rock formations in a 700-meter. This is a highly recommended cave aside from its neighbor Callao Cave.

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Reminders

• Always practice leave-no-trace principle. I have to highlight to please not leave anything inside, do not vandalize, and do not take any physical memento from the cave. Whether it is under the protection of the DENR or not, treat nature with respect.
• The weather is hot, thus bring enough water to quench your thirst on the way to the cave and during the spelunking activity.
• Wear a comfortable dark-colored, non-slip, close-toed rubber shoes for the hike and halfway through the cave.
• Get a complete extra set of clothes to change to after you get out of the cave.

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Reference

DENR Momorandum Circular No. 2012-03. List of classified caves [pdf file]. Retrieved on 16 July 2019 from https://server2.denr.gov.ph/uploads/rmdd/dmc-2012-03.pdf

Proclamation No. 416, s. 1994. Retrieved on 19 July 2019 from https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1994/06/29/proclamation-no-416-s-1994/.

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Disclaimer: As much as we want to give the most accurate information for the readers, change will always occur (e.g., contact number, transportation, fees, etc.). With this, please do comment below any updates as well as corrections on the content, anything amiss, or any information that you think is crucial to the readers. Iyaman!