Cave shooting tips needed please!

My hubby & I are headed to MO next Fri. We're planning to tour the Onodaga Cave which is SW of St. Louis. Cameras apparently are allowed as I've found a number of shots on the net. I would guess, however, that tripods are not allowed as it is a guided tour and I could see where tripods might be an issue in tighter quarters like this.

Anyone have any tips or advice for shooting in caves? ISO suggestions? I have a Canon Rebel XTI - max ISO is 1600. Any other ideas to stabilize the camera? It looks like they probably have a lot of handrails around the formations.

Flash or no flash?

Lens? Probably the fastest glass I have? I have an F4 35-80 mm lens and a F3.5-4 10-22 mm lens.

I assume I should shoot wide open to allow as much light as possible in.

Your advice/suggestions are always appreciated. I'm amazed at the knowledge all you folks have

Don't bump your head! (that is all the advice I could come up with).

Do any of the photos you have seen online have embedded metadata you could use to figure out how they were taken?

Hope you have a great trip! Looking forward to seeing the photos!

Hi Angela, I don't know what they allow day to day but sometimes they invite Amateur Photographers to come and take there time shooting. I don't think you will have much luck without a tripod, but thats just my thought. Maybe someone else knows more.

I would fight for a tripod. If you could get even a cheap small one in that would help more than anything.