I met a few members of the Cascade Grotto while climbing Del Campo Peak off the Mountain Loop Highway last Fall. Having peaked my interest after recently stumbling upon a large signed cave entrance near Snoqualmie Pass, this chance meeting was all the extra motivation I needed to join the grotto. My friend Ben and I attended the next meeting in October where we gained a wealth of information that is otherwise very difficult to find, including the dates of the bat hibernation season which had just begun on October 1st. This and rising snow levels meant it would be close to a 6 month wait before we could go on our first caving adventure.
Flash forward 6 months and Ben, James, and I were on our way to the South side of Mount Saint Helens. We parked at the Trail of Two Forests Trailhead began to weave through meandering footprints in patchy snow, searching for a big hole in the ground. Even with GPS issues we quickly found the entrance about 1000 feet from the parking lot, and began to gear up. It was at least 65 degrees out and my thick layers made me eager to get underground into the cooler air. Our first stop was the "Red Lava Flows" just inside the entrance. My camera is pretty crappy, so hopefully i will upload some pictures James took with his superior equiptment. I really enjoyed the contrast between red rock and sand and polished metallic splatters.
Lake Cave was formed by a volcanic event that flowed South of Mount Saint Helens about 1500-1900 years ago. As the flow began to cool and harden, hot channels of lava burrowed through the cooling mass, creating a hollow tubes below the new land surface of cooled magma. Years of erosion and gravity eventually created an entrance to some of these lava tubes.
The consistent 42 degree temperature is ideal for regulating body heat while scrambling and crawling around. There are several optional over-under sections with short squeezes. Part of the goal of this trip was to assure James that he could trust us not to freak out in tight, dark spaces so I took advantage of nearly every opportunity to dive into a hole and see where it lead. Along the way James pointed out lava splatters near the walls and where huge ledges of rock have collapsed into crumbling piles. In a some places trapped gases had caused the ceiling to expand into massive domes over 40 feet above us. Near the end of the tube the water flowing under our feet widened as we approached the namesake of this cave - a small lake that slowly drains into the sand floor below it. James noted that during the dry season you can walk all the way back to where the ceiling dives into a dry sandy floor.
My favorite part was on the way back up when we stopped to explore some tight passages closer to the surface caused by surface erosion. The lava flows engulfed forests leaving hollow casts of the trees and trunks where the lava had cooled around them. Most of the wood was long-burnt up and/or decomposed but the texture of the bark was frozen into the rock in places and there were even a few chunks of charcoal left buried in the walls. These small tunnels were created over the next 1500 years by surface water erosion.
We did some fun scrambling and a few more crawls on the way back and found some more polished splatters and drips. Before daylight was visible we all noticed the heat and I was sweating before I could get out into the sunshine and remove a very dirty layer of clothing. It took us just over 3 hours to thoroughly explore Lake Cave. I'm looking forward to a long day in a bigger hole next weekend.
Thanks again James for being our guide!
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