Lava Caves (6/25)

Wednesday we drove around to the south entrance of Mt St Helen's to the Ape Caves, which are really lava caves.  There is an upper cave and a lower cave. The lower cave is .75 miles long and the upper cave is 1.5 miles long.  Once you climb down into the entrance it becomes very dark very quickly.  The recommend each person have two sources of light.  We had three between us.  Once you climb down some stairs you are at a junction go behind the stairs for the upper cave and in front of them for the lower caves.  Since we didn't know what to expect we decided to start with the lower caves.  It is a constant 42 degrees in these caves and very wet.  I had to put my hood of my jacket up to keep very cold water from dripping down my neck.

Map of the caves

Even with my head lamp on and a flash light it was hard to see where you are going.  There are a lot of rocks on the floor and boulders you have to climb around.  Along the side of the cave is what they call the railroad tracks.  When you shine your light down the tube you can see why they are called that.  The tubes are a little more than two people wide in this area, and much wider in other parts.

Railroad tracks

The other feature of this cave is called the meatball.  You have what looks like railroad tracks above your head and you have to look for the round rock that is stuck between then.  By some miracle I managed to find it.  I guess I looked up at the right time.

Once you get to the back of the cave the ceiling gets lower and lower until you would need to crawl on you belly to go any further.

  

By the time we were back out we were freezing and wet but had a great time.  It was time for lunch so we decided not to do the upper cave.  Instead we went to Lava Canyon.  The Lava Canyon trail explores an area that was hit by the May 18th 1980 eruption of Mt St Helen.  We did the 1 1/4 mile loop hike that includes a very scary (for me) suspension bridge above the very rapid flow of the river.  This trail has big drop offs and several waterfalls.  Once across the first little bridge we found a place on top of a lava flow to eat lunch.

After lunch we continued on down the trail.  You can clearly hear the waterfall but you can't see it from the trail, then you get to the suspension bridge, YIKES!!!!!  It bounces and sways as you walk across it.  I made Joe promise he wouldn't shake it.

 The view between the slats on the bridge!



 Once across we went down another trail that was about a foot wide with a very steep drop offs down to the river.  I couldn't believe I was the one to suggest we go down it.  I could hear a water fall and wanted to see it.

Once back to the bridge we continued up the trail to another waterfall.  Oregon and Washington is truly a land of waterfalls.  They are every where. That is what happens when it rains all the time!
This waterfall was right below where we ate lunch!
This rock formation was kind of cool! Kind of looks like picket post.



View of Mt St Helen from the southern side.  You would never know it blew from this side except for the areas where a 15 ft of mud and water scoured the canyon.  This allowed many old lava flows to be discovered that were never seen before.  Like the one we ate lunch on. Kind of cool!!!