Mount St. Helens - Part II

On the day of my summit to Mount St. Helens, I also went to the south part of the park and visited the Ape Caves. This deserved a post in its own right. I'd heard of these a year prior and was dying to go ever since. Lava tubes is a more fitting name for these structures as they were formed by lava flowing down the mountain 1,900 years ago. The tunnel is around 2 miles in length and you go down a staircase in a hole in the ground. I had my head lamp and took extra clothing since it's 42 degrees, however realized my headlamp may not cut it. Additionally, I started to walk along which was quite frightening, even though you know the tunnels are filled with people. I found a family that I could tag along behind and soon I was at the head of the group w/ two of their sons. We traversed 27 boulder pilings in the dark. It was really neat to look up and see the ceiling of the tunnel and also the different kinds of rocks and structures the lava left behind. After awhile my eyes became adjusted to the dark and I was used to just the headlamp since I couldn't hold anything while climbing over rocks. It took nearly 2.5 hours to go through the whole thing and at the end is a "skylight" with a ladder that you can climb out and then hike back down to the visitors center. If you're not claustrophobic and able to climb over things in the dark, I'd highly recommend visiting this part of MSH - you could even just go down and walk on the easier section if you don't want to walk/climb the whole thing. I attempted to take some photos below but most didn’t turn out great – but I have some good shots of the entrance and exit.

The best underground shot which doesn't illustrate the boulder piles I had to climb.

 

The ladder to exit out the skylight

Hooray, I made it!