Day trip to Latvia, part two: caves and more caves

Skiing is done, done, done. Now some caves? 

The first cave, Kalēja Ala, is a sandstone cave. It seemed it had formed in a hill with very soft sandstone, and I wasn't sure how it was fully holding up... sand dripping from the roof. However, there was no exploring of this cave as in the winter season the bats need their rest... while there were many footprints to the cave, I stayed at the entrance, just took a photo towards the insides. It would have been a spectacular cave to visit, though, I need to come back in the summer! This cave also had a short side cave higher up on the hill.

Once I left these caves, I drove towards Riga and found the second pair of caves, including Latvia's largest cave, Gūtmaņa Ala. Massive cave, in volume but not that long. A hole on the mountainside, and with a spring at the end. Nice, and easy to visit. And open all year along :-)  This one also had a side cave that was much smaller, and this time much more cave-like.

Here's a more detailed run down of the caves, along with coordinates. I also scanned two of the caves with my iPhone's lidar capability, and created maps using my Cave Outliner software package.  

Kalēja Ala, Raiskums. Coordinates N 57.379438 E 25.262701. The cave is 46 meters long. More information here.

Photos of the cave:

Kalēja Sānu Ala. Side cave to the above. Coordinates N 57.3795475 E 25.262771. The cave is 6 meters long. This one I was able to scan with my scanning pole, the model is loadable here, can be rotated on your browser screen here, and the high-resolution map can be downloaded here.

One photo of this cave is the opening shot of this article. Other photos of the cave:

Gūtmaņa Ala, Sigulda. Coordinates N 57.176169 E 24.842373. More information here. My measurements indicate that the cave was 18 meters long, but various sources disagree on the exact length, however. 

This one I was able to scan with my scanning pole, the model is loadable here, can be rotated on your browser screen here, and the high-resolution map can be downloaded here.

Photos of the cave:

Gūtmaņa Sānu Ala. Side cave to the above. Coordinates N 57.175015 E 24.841227. I didn't measure this cave, but I wild guess is that it is around 14 meters long. Could be few meters longer or shorter.

Photos of the cave:

The previous part of this trip report was about skiing (link, alt. link). The next part is about the airport (link, alt. link).

This article has also been published at Planetcaver.net here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.