Ape Caves: The Hard Cave

 

       The last time I posted, I wrote a review on the book "All 13," which is all about caves. Not only have we been reading this book at school, but we have also been learning about caves in science. For a field trip, last Saturday my class went on a trip to lava tubes that are about four and a half hours away. These lava tubes are called the Ape Caves, and they were created when Mount Saint Helens erupted in 1980. The lava flowed through the rock and cooled afterwards, creating tubes, or caves. The Ape Caves are made up of two caves you can explore on your own. Our class explored both caves, yet I will only be writing about the hard cave.

    To get to the hard cave, you had to go the opposite direction of the easy cave, underneath the stairs that took you into the caves. We walked for a few minutes in some regular sized chambers, which were very uneven. We finally arrived in a very large chamber, and saw our first obstacle. There was a large pile of rocks that had fallen, which you had to climb over. After that first pile, there were many more. We continued on and came across more large boulders to climb over. We stopped a lot along the way for water breaks and more. Food was not allowed in the caves, so we were all very hungry. 

    At one of these stops, we turned off our headlamps. It was pitch black! There is no light except for the entrance, the exit, and two little holes in the top of the hard cave (one is pictured above). We continued through the cave, over more piles of rocks, and we arrived at an eight foot lava wall. We carefully walked down a pile of rocks, and over some boulders, to the bottom of the wall. One by one, each of us used the rope to climb up the wall. It took some teamwork, but it was fun! We kept walking and after another period of time, we made it to one of the largest boulders...some of us were able to squeeze around the side of it, but the adults had to slide over the top. When we made it to the little hole in the roof, we were so excited to be able to see daylight after hiking in a cave for a couple hours. There was moss growing, and you could see pine trees and blue sky. We continued hiking for awhile longer before coming across another hole, and...finally...the way out! The exit was a skinny little ladder, taking us back to the crisp, cold air of the outside world.

    After we left the cave, we took some pictures, and headed back to the parking lot. There was a one and a half mile hike back to the main entrance of the cave. We spent around three hours in the hard cave. It was cold inside, and no food was allowed. The hike was really hard. I am not a very athletic person, and I was sore for a few days after, yet I would do it again. It was a great teamwork experience and really fun. I loved seeing how beautiful the caves were, even if science is not my favorite. The greenery and moss growing outside was pretty, too. I would most definitely walk through this cave again.