This month's outing was our long-awaited Ape Cave trip. We've been trying to get down here for the last six months. Finally all the cards played out right.
We left Friday night at about 5:00 and headed south. What a great time of day to be trying to get through I-5 traffic in Tacoma. It's OK, though, the GPS took us on a nice little backroad to avoid the traffic. I'm still not convinced it was actually shorter, but it was scenic if nothing else.
Our camp was at Ike Kinswa State Park on Mayfield Lake. It was a great campsite.
In the morning we got up a broke camp as quick as we could, had muffins and bananas for breakfast, and hit the road. We were still about two hours from the cave.
The cave is technically closed this time of year, but that doesn't stop people from going there. The road is gated about one mile before the the cave, but you can park at the gate and head up on foot. I was surprised at the number of people that were there.
It was very wet in the cave. There was constant dripping from above and there were some places where you had to pick your steps around some pretty good size pools.
Here are some pics from inside.
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| Group shot before heading in. |
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| The stairs leading down inside. |
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| Many of the walls and ceiling were white like this. |
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| The ceiling was surprisingly high in some places. |
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| Interesting ceiling formations. |
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| Some places the ceiling was tons of these little stalactites. |
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| Looks like the rock is "oozing". |
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| This is called The Skylight |
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| Here we are at the end. |
Fortunately for us, the adventure wasn't over yet. We still had to hike about a mile or so back to the trailhead, and this time we got to do it in the snow. Not everyone was really prepared for that, but we all survived.
I figured everyone would crash on the ride home and I would be left to my thoughts. It didn't work out that way, though. I guess we didn't hike long enough. I'll remember that for next time.
