The All Weather Coats: Ape Cave

We've been told that one of the many distant mountains we see from our living room is Mt. St. Helen's. That's both kind of cool, and a little scary given the events of 34 years ago. Nevertheless, for a while I've wanted to see it up close and personal and I thought it would be good for the kids to learn a little about recent US history. I find that if you don't meaningfully put something on the calendar, then time passes by and it never happens. So in honor of my 29th birthday, I planned a family trip to Mt. St. Helen's for the weekend.

The first stop on our getaway was Ape Cave. I read an article about this fascinating hike shortly after we moved to Washington and I've kept it tucked away in the back of my mind as a must-do. Formed 2000 years ago, Ape Cave is located on the south side of the volcano and is the largest lava tube in the Western hemisphere. The tube runs for over 2 miles underground! One part is a scramble-over-boulders kind of hike, the other is a more family friendly route, but both are very cool. We started on the more difficult of the two but changed course when we came to the first rock pile. After Cannon and I scrambled to the top and couldn't see a clear route, we decided that maybe the family friendly route was the better option.

About to descend...

Going down

Emmy with her head lamp. We were sure to pack extra batteries and flashlights!

Once inside the cave, the scenery was surreal. A lava tube is formed when molten lava flows under a hardened surface and the result is just like the name - a tube! It is also complete and utterly dark. We all had head lamps but we were able to convince Emmy to turn hers off for a split second so we could experience total darkness. It was intense!

It was so dark that even with our headlamps shining on the surface, the camera could barely register enough light to take a photo. These are some of the few I got.

It was also cold - a constant 42 degrees.

Of course, the 42 degrees was heaven for Stevie!

We made it! Heading back out. Can you see Cannon's breath?

After we returned to the surface, Cannon, London and I headed off on one more hike. From the Ape Cave parking lot, a brand new trail, just opened that day, headed up the hill. We ended at the top with a fantastic view of the south side of Mt. St. Helen's.