The Ape Caves

All last week the weather report had said it was supposed to be dry Monday,Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday was a beautiful day and the kids spent a lot of time outside. We decided that we should take advantage of the good weather on Tuesday and go on another hike. My mom thought the kids would like to hike to the top of Beacon Rock. It is the spot where Lewis and Clark realized they were almost to the Pacific Ocean.


So Tuesday morning we got ready and packed our picnic. Then as we were loading the kids in the car this started.........
Rain. and not just sprinkling you can ignore. Buckets of rain.



But instead of unloading everyone and going back inside for a rainy day, we just changed the location of our hike to Mount St Helen's Ape Caves. 99% of this hike is underground, so rain or shine you can hike it.

The cave is really cold and dark, so we went back into the house and got warmer clothes and a few flashlights. Then we were off.


By the time we got to the hike we decided we better eat lunch first. It was still pouring rain, so we set the picnic up in the back of Grandma's Vehicle.


The chipmunks were not afraid of us or the rain and came right up to us to get the crumbs that fell on the ground. By the time we finished eating the rain had slowed to a sprinkle, so we headed to the caves.

I had never been to the ape caves before, so I really had no idea what to expect. At first I wondered if there were formations shaped like apes, but my mom told us that they are called Ape caves after a Scout group who first explored the caves who called themselves the Apes.

There are two parts to the cave. The upper cave and the lower cave. My family have been on both hikes and said the upper cave is for people 9 years old and up, because there are some tricky parts, but the lower cave is perfect for little ones.

The Lower cave is called the Lava Tube, and it is not hard to see why. It is where the lava carved out a big long tube in the mountain. The cave is
3/4 of a mile long. As we kept going further and further into the cave I wondered how far under ground we were. There were some parts where the cave was really wide and others where the ceiling was very high.
After finding the cave on our last hike the kids were very excited to get to explore a cave. They also loved that it was so cold we could see our breath if we held our flash lights near our mouths. At one point they were pretending to be dragons.

One of the scenic parts of the caves is the meatballs.
(This photo came out too dark, but I lightened it a little just so we can see it, so the quality is not that great.) As we got to the end of the cave it got smaller and smaller. I did not go the last few feet to the end, because with Valerie on my back I was worried I would hit her head. So I waited while the kids went on.


The hike back was a little eerie to me, just because I was not sure when we were going to get out. Going in you know it is all underground and there is no exit, but coming back I kept wondering where the sunlight was. Towards the end I felt like we had hiked long enough, but then we would round a corner and still not see sunlight. I have to say I was happy when we spotted the sunlight coming into the opening. This hike is definitely not for the claustrophobic.


Valerie slept for most of the hike. I guess it got dark and cool, it must have been time to sleep.


It was a really cool hike and the kids loved it. They felt like real explorers with their flashlights.