Step 1 — Select an Area
Click a button, then draw on the map to select your search area
Already know your area?
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Ready. Draw an area to begin.
Want more control?
Run an analysis to see results.
Upload Your File
Drop a GeoTIFF DEM or LAS/LAZ point cloud to analyse without auto-download.
Drop file here or click to browse
.tif .tiff .las .laz .kmz
.tif .tiff .las .laz .kmz
Multi-Date Change Detection
Upload two DEMs of the same area (different dates). New or deepened depressions between surveys are flagged as high-priority cave candidates.
Drop DEM 1 (.tif / .tiff)
Drop DEM 2 (.tif / .tiff)
Minimum elevation change to flag as new depression
Batch Queue
Queue multiple areas for overnight processing. Draw each area, configure settings, then click "Add to Queue". When ready, start all jobs.
How to Use CaveFinder
1. Draw an area on the map over terrain you want to search. Use the rectangle or polygon tool.
2. Click Analyze. CaveFinder scans the elevation data for terrain features that look like cave entrances, sinkholes, and karst depressions.
3. Review results. Pins appear on the map, ranked by confidence.
• Higher confidence = the terrain strongly resembles a known cave entrance
• Depth = how deep the depression appears in the elevation data
• These are candidates, not confirmed caves — field verification is always needed
• Depth = how deep the depression appears in the elevation data
• These are candidates, not confirmed caves — field verification is always needed
4. Adjust the confidence slider to show more or fewer results.
• Slide left = more results (may include false positives)
• Slide right = fewer, higher-quality results
• Slide right = fewer, higher-quality results
5. Create a Ridgewalk Plan (Pro) to get a terrain-aware walking route that visits your selected candidates. Downloads as a PDF route map + GPX track for your phone or GPS.
6. Go to the field! Mark candidates as confirmed, negative, or needs investigation after visiting them.
Tips for Better Results
Higher resolution = more caves found. At 30 m you'll catch
large sinkholes. At 10 m you get most cave-size depressions.
At 1 m you can detect entrances under 1 m wide.
Draw small areas first. Start with a 2-5 km² box over known cave country
to verify the tool finds what you expect before running a large area.
Enable the Karst layer in the Map Controls panel before drawing — if your area
is outside the green overlay, there's little point running analysis there.
Have your own LiDAR? You can upload a GeoTIFF DEM file directly instead of
using our built-in data sources. Look for the upload option in the Setup tab.
Use field notes. After a field trip, mark each candidate as confirmed,
negative, or needs investigation in the Results tab. This data is saved
and included in GPX/KML exports for the next trip.
Map Controls▼
Base Map
Overlays
Karst
Known Caves
BLM
USFS
NPS
Hydrology
Strong Lead
Worth a Look
Uncertain
Long Shot
Known cave (public data)
Known sinkhole
Stream sink