"The Ape Caves", Part 1 of WA/OR trip, Oct. 2012

We took a trip to Washington/Oregon in October 2012 to see my sister, Karen and her boyfriend Scott. For about three years, we have talked about this. So when Jonathan started talking one morning about lava tubes after a unit in Science, we told the kids about the Ape Caves south of Mount St. Helens. Michael looked across the table at me and said, "Call your sister. Let's go to Portland in three weeks." I did some internet searching for times and places and things to do, coordinated events with Karen and Scott, called some friends in Vancouver who sweetly offered to coordinate a potluck so we could see several families at one time. 

 On October 16, we flew. At the little airport close to home, we went through our first TSA mess with the kids. My hands were swabbed as was everyone else. I think a residue of gasoline must have been on my hands from fueling up that morning. ugh. So I had to be searched. Then I was asked if the suitcase I had been pulling was mine. (We managed to pack into two suitcases, the kids and Michael and I all sharing space.) I made the mistake of saying yes. All the work of rolling socks and kids underwear and shoving them into hiking boots to conserve space was wrecked. The suitcase was a MESS. argh! I had to repack that suitcase once we got to the next airport and had a little time. Here we are on the moving sidewalk at DIA. The kids thought that was cool.

Annisia enjoyed her first plane trip. Jonathan's first was back in 2005, but fun to do again. They were excited to watch a movie on the plane, but you had to buy a movie (and we were feeling cheap so we didn't!) so they were content with iPod/iPad games.

I think the mountain showing out the plane window is Mount Rainier...not sure though. It was fun again to see the changing landscape from the air.

We landed in Portland where Karen and Scott met us with some booster seats. Yay! That eased our minds with the traffic there. Plus the kids were able to look out the windows in our travels. We went out to dinner with Scott's daughter and husband. Then home to Karen and Scott's place for a night's rest.

The next morning we met up with Terry W. and Scott P., some of our ministers in that area. The 40 mile drive to the Ape Caves entrance was beautiful and we got a lovely view of Mount St. Helens. The road wound through the lush green forest and through quaint mountain towns. We saw old rusted logging equipment left from the eruption of 1980 parked in front of little restaurants. 
I thought I'd just copy and paste the info from this website. There are other lava tube throughout WA/OR, but this is the only one I have been in, and several times too.
"How the Ape Caves were formed:  About 2,000 years ago lava poured down the southern flank of Mount St. Helens in streams. As the lava flowed the outer edges of the lava stream cooled forming a hardened crust which insulated the molten lava beneath. This allowed the lava to remain hot and fluid encased in this “lava tube” and continued flowing months during the eruption. The end result was the creation of this spectacular 13,042 long lava tube. This formation is especially unusual at Mount St. Helens as this type of volcano usually erupts lava of a much thicker consistency which tends to block flow and build up pressure resulting in explosive eruptions like the blast of 1980."

Our little family in front of the Ape Headquarters with Terry W. This from the web site for how the Ape Caves got their name:  "Common lore attributes the name to a scout troop who explored the caves back in the early 50’s.  Apparently the troop’s sponsor was the St. Helens Apes – a group of foresters. Foresters and loggers in those days were sometimes referred to as “Brush Apes”.  Those that have claimed to have seen bigfoot in the area believe the caves would have been a perfect habitat for the reclusive creatures." Terry kept saying, "Oh! What was that? Was that an ape? Is that puddle where the apes take their baths?" We all thought it was funny.
"Recommended equipment for exploring the Ape Caves is sturdy shoes or boots, warm clothing, and three sources of light."  So we all had on our hiking boots, base layers, fleece and headlamps. The Ape Caves remain approximately 40 degree F year round.

 This is a map of the underground hike we're about to do...

Here we are climbing over one of the 27 boulder piles described here: "The upper Ape Cave is 1½-mile long and takes about 2½ hours to complete, returning on a surface trail. This section is more adventurous as cavers must climb over approximately 27 boulder piles and scale an 8-foot high lava fall.  The boulder piles formed after the eruption subsided and the fluid lava drained from the tube. As the lava tube cooled, it began to shrink and crack. These cracks weakened the ceiling and walls causing parts of them to collapse – forming entrances to Ape Cave."

 

And here is a photo of Scott, Annisia, myself and Jonathan at the bottom of the above mentioned 8 foot high lava fall. Michael scaled it, then Terry, then we roped the kids (with climbing rope my brilliant husband had the foresight to pack) and they climbed like, well, like monkeys! heehee! I also decided to rope up as I didn't really relish falling and breaking something. (We think of these things as we get older...) Scott brought up the rear.

The kids were super excited to get their very own headlamps. They practiced turning them on and off at home, then we packed them up ready for this trip. We were about 1/3 the way through when Scott said his head lamp batteries died. It wasn't until we were about 3/4 the way through when I remembered I had extra batteries in my pack. {oops!} Scott didn't mind; he enjoyed the challenge and was having fun just using my light in front of him.

Here are the kids up on the wall under a skylight. This is not an exit point; that's farther up the tube, a permanently attached metal ladder. They thought it was cool to take a photo in the same place I took one of their Daddy before we married.

Look for the steam rising from the center right-ish side of the above photos...that's where the metal ladder comes up into the forest. It was a gorgeous day; we were almost sorry to have been underground for part of it, until we realized that the sunny dry weather meant that we weren't continuously dripped on during our hike through the cave! Annisia enjoyed picking a little moss bouquet...she loves all things little and pretty, just like her.

Terry W, Jonathan, Darla, Annisia, Scott P

Our little family just out of the Caves...

 The U.S.D.A. Forest Service Cave Inventory marker...not really sure what this means, but interesting to see it. We headed out for our mile and a half return hike through the forest. Did I happen to mention it was a lovely sunny day?! The kids were troopers. After all the boulder piles we climbed, they still had to hike back. We heard a little grumbling, but they were good sports.

Jonathan LOVES his "new" ability to read everything. And everywhere we went there were things to read. Big placards outside the caves described everything that is on the website. Here, he is reading about the existence of life in the caves. As we completed our hike and went to use the restroom before our drive out to the freeway, we noticed this sign. "Upper cave is not recommended for small children." Funnily enough, I don't think we saw this on the way in, and we walked right past it!

It was a good day, so far that is. We dropped Terry and Scott back in Woodland then continued up I-5 to Castle Rock where we took the exit to go to Mount St. Helens...Part 2 of our trip. Oh, and the kids took a nap...