Latest News

This is what you can expect if you are going to the Ape Caves:

(Necessary items for hiking thru the cave:  Hard hat/bicycle helmet, 2 flashlight (in case one goes out or you drop it between boulders, also would suggest a necklace of some kind attached to your flashlight in case you need to let go of it to catch your balance), gloves (as you will be grabbing onto a lot of rock for balance).

The Drive:  We drove from Seattle which is a rather long drive, but my truck was full of kids so they kept each other, and me, well entertained.  On I-5 and once you exit I-5 there are brown signs that direct you to the Ape Caves.  You will find there is not much cell reception on the drive up there but once you get to the main parking lot you will have good cell reception.

General Cave Info.:  There are 2 cave entrances, a lower one near the parking lot and an upper one (1.3 miles up a very scenic trail).  The lower cave entrance you can go up or down (down being a very easy hike that is about .75 miles).  Up from the lower entrance is an easy hike into the larger caverns/areas of the cave.

Our Hike:  We chose to hike up the 1.3 miles to the upper entrance so that we could hike thru the caves coming back down (Hiking thru the caves from one entrance to another is a rather difficult hike that involves climbing and good balance).

We started our trek by climbing down a steel ladder into the cave itself (kind of a tight fit if you have a backpack on), then we proceeded the hike down thru the mine.  We immediately started coming across rock/boulder piles that we had to climb over.  These boulder piles are all through out the cave and some of them you can see down between the boulders 10, 15, even 20 ft. down.  At some points we were climbing from one boulder to another with drops that would break bones.  (Please note here:  This is a very cool hike, and if you are careful you will have nothing to worry about... in other words, don't try to rush through this hike).

About halfway down we encountered a lava wall (about 8 ft.) that we had to climb down.  I simply stayed at the bottom and as people layed against the rock and hung over the side of it I directed their left foot to a foothold so they could slowly lower themselves to the ground below. (do not attempt to climb down this wall forwards.. make sure you are facing the wall.  If you have doubts about it, then ask someone for help, or go back from whence you came (-:)  After this lava wall we continued down climbing over more boulder piles and eventually got down into parts of the cave that were huge (big enough to fit buses in next to each other and stacked..and I'm not talking about the short buses either)

We stopped and ate some lunch a little more than halfway thru the cave.  Although some of this hike appears to be a level hike thru this lava tube, you will always want to watch your step as there are a lot of small trip hazards.  After hiking thru these larger parts of the cave we came to the lower cave entrance whick had a series of stair steps that led up and out into the heavens above.  We did not go down the .75 miles on the easy hike as we had some other plans (see down below where we left this parking lot)

DO NOT take pets into the caves because they can't see any better than we can in 'pure darkness'!  If you decide not to use common sense and take your pet down there, then take a cross with you to mark where your pet died... seriously... unless you plan on carrying your pet thru the whole cave.  They are not allowed down there anyways.

Just ignore the 6-8 inch spiders hanging from the ceiling or the little lizards that try to nip at your feet, neither one will actually hurt you!  (I'm just kidding LOL, we didn't see another form of life through out the whole cave except other hikers).

These caves are extremely popular and we passed 100+ people in the caves hiking the other direction (including a boy scout troop), so you will never be alone down there.  This hike thru the cave took us around 2 hours to complete and it was well worth it.

Leaving the Parking lot:  When we left the parking lot we drove down around a mile and on the right is another parking lot with a trail off to the left as you enter the lot.  This is a really cool (mostly bridged) loop walk that takes you over an old lava flow and there are mini lava tubes here that the kids can crawl thru, not to mention that this extremely short hike is also very scenic.

Here are some pictures I took of our group hike... CLICK HERE!

If you go to the Ape Caves, Have a great time and stay safe!

Also, I would suggest not taking very young children down there (the ones with our group were ages 11-15).