Empire Cave, also known as Porter Caves, is a series of three underground caverns located in a section of woods near UCSC.
In order to enter, you must climb down a ladder through a hole in a slab of concrete. The concrete platform has a secure ladder leading down into the cave below.
These caves are home to the Dollof cave spider and the Empire Cave pseudoscorpion, species thought to be endemic to the surrounding caves.
This area is low in elevation compared to campus, so I would not recommend visiting during the rainy season. The river nearby sometimes floods over, water collects in the cave, or even causes cave-ins. I actually noticed that the third cavern is larger because of a recent collapse.
Across the river is “Hell Hole,” a tighter, more technical cave that is rumored to continue all the way down to the Santa Cruz shoreline. This cave received its nickname because of how small the entrance is. "And they shall be made to crawl on their bellies to enter the kingdom of darkness", and that is exactly how it feels to enter the first canal.
1. The entrance of Empire Cave.
2. Ladder leading into the caverns.
3.Some graffiti inside the second chamber.
4. The view of the ladder before exiting.
5. The storm drain between Empire Cave and Hell Hole.
6. My favorite graffiti of the day.( "Be Gay Do Crimes")
7. More storm drain.
8. Exploring is always better with a friend!(If you live by Santa Cruz send me a message.)
9. A lucky slugo we found.
10. After about a 25 minute hike along the river, we finally found the entrance to Hell Hole.
Overall, the Empire Cave is a fun little spot to explore. Very easy to get into. Hell Hole is a little intense. We tried to climb down into the first cavern, but it got a little tight to continue on. If you find either location, please be sure to clean up any trash you may use while inside. There seems to be a problem with littering sadly.