Hello everyone.
Here are some pictures of the concrete cave we originally made for the red foots. When our neighbor dropped off a gopher tortoise without warning, we made the Red Foot Courtyard. The Gophers took over this area...


Here is the wood frame with insulated foam board. It is covered with stucco lath to make the rock shapes.


Here you can see how the concrete and stucco will cover all the mesh and start to form the rocks. There are also 2 glass skylights and an access hole that will be covered by vegetation. (We wanted to be able to see them in there!)


There is the finished product.


Did you notice the access lid? Here it is without the lid.


The gophers thought this cave was way too nice so they just dug a giant custom burrow.

I'll post photos of the little diggers in the Desert Tortoise Discussion area.

whoa, that looks great! what a fun project...too bad they didnt take to it

Great area for torts. is the hidden access lid a planter?

The lid is a plastic tool tray. Holes are drilled in the bottom to let water drain through. The tray had a perfect lip around the edge so the opening is just smaller than the lip. That's what keeps it from falling all the way through.

Cool!Just wished I could do something like that but Humpfrees inside.

This is awesome! I am planning to build an outdoor enclosure this spring. I am going to have to figure out how to do this.