Exploring

The original plan for Memorial weekend was to climb Mt. St. Helens with Joey. However, as we entered May, the snow pack was not looking promising for a little guy to climb in. So, change of plans. Instead, we decided to turn the four day weekend into a caving adventure mixed with a tourist visit to Mt. St. Helens. We also invited Jonathan’s parents but only his dad could come hang out with us.

Day 1:

Loaded up the car with caving gear, hiking gear, sleeping gear (for the cabin) and kayaks and left town around noon. Our first stop was Layser Cave. Joey was really excited about a cave called Layser, but in his head he really envisioned Laser. We left I-5 solely to investigate this hike (thirty miles out of the way). We found our spur road and finally our trailhead. Everyone was really ready to scope out our first cave. With helmets on and headlamps ready, we took off down the trail. After about twenty minutes, we reached the “cave.” Ok, cool little cave about thirty feet deep, but really lame. I would not recommend going thirty miles out the way to see this cave. It seemed more like a small opening where some bears would hibernate. Oh, well, that is why we explore. Back to the car, we checked out our maps and determined that we could go visit the most dramatic views of Mt. St. Helens from where we were. So we headed down Forest Service Road 25. After an hour of driving down this road we came to a road closure and a lot of snow. Bummer! We had just wasted an hour of driving just to come to a closed road. However, the views along the way were spectacular. So we turned around and saw everything again. By this time, it was getting late and we needed to get to Cougar (south side of Helens) so we headed out toward I-5. Despite all the glitches we encountered, everyone kept positive.

We arrive at Cougar RV Campgrounds around 10:30 pm and the campground owner was still up and waiting on us. She gave us the keys to the cabin and off we went. Typical campground cabin, however, this campgrounds did not believe in putting curtains or window shades in the windows. In typical Jonathan camping fashion, a 22″ monitor was pulled out and a movie was put on. This was a great way to end Day 1.

Day 2

Western Washington weather……overcast and rain. This never stops our family and fortunately, my children could care less if it is raining or not, they are just happy to be on an adventure with mom, dad and Papa. After breakfast, we loaded up in the car to head to Ape Caves.

We arrived at the trailhead and headed over to the caves. After dropping down about twenty feet, we entered the lava tubes. The trail leads you down a two flights of stares. After reaching the bottom floor, you get to decide which way you want to go. The easy way is about 3/4 mile long along the gentle floor of the lower lava tube. The more challenging way lead you a mile and a half through the upper tube. However, the more challenging route is said to have 27 rock piles to maneuver over and an eight foot wall to climb over. No problem. I was ready. I even packed my short rope and a child’s harness to help each of the kids when we came to the eight foot wall. So we embarked on the challenging route. We had headlamps, really bright headlamps, but this is a cave and it was really, really dark.

Off we went. The first hundred or so feet were a little challenging. Also, you really had to watch the kids to make sure they were walking in the right direction. Then we came to those small rock piles I had read about. These are not bad for adults, however, these are giant mountains to a three year old. Elissa tried to maneuver from one rock to the next, but she was really scared. At one point she hit her knee and it really upset her. We continued on to the top of the first rock pile, but became concerned that perhaps this was just too much of an undertaking for these little guys. Joey was really upset. He was doing really well and having a great time exploring and making his way up over rocks. Jonathan sat him down and gave him a speech on what being a good leader was and how it is important for a good leader to take care of everyone and now was the time to take care of his sister. Joey took in Jonathan’s words and felt a lot better about turning around to make sure his sister didn’t get hurt.

We carefully climbed back down and make our way back to the ladder. From here we took the easier, gentler route down the other lava tube. Although not a challenge to us, the kids really enjoyed the new route. This cave was huge and very fascinating. Water was constantly dripping. We even spotted a bat about fifteen feet above us. After about thirty minutes, we made it to the end of the cave. Joey, Elissa and Jonathan crawled to the very end. After they came out, we all sat down and ate some snacks. It was a very surreal experience to be so deep in a cave. After snacks, everyone started getting cold. The average temperature of the caves are around 40 degrees. So to warm up, we started walking back. Finally we exited the caves to a warmer 60 degrees. What a fun adventure. We will definitely come back again.

We drove back to the cabin and put some dry clean clothes and headed out to dinner. Pizza at Papa Petes. We really like this place. It had been our dinner before we Jonathan, Shaun and I climbed St. Helens two years ago. Great establishment and great pizza. Back to the cabin and we enjoyed another movie and planned the next day’s events.

Day 3

The original plan for day 3 was to go do some waterfall hikes and then go kayaking on one of the lakes. However, the weather just was not in our favor. It was still cold and the wind was picking up. This would have been ok for Jonathan and I, but the kids would not have enjoyed being out on the water getting colder. So, only headed out for some waterfall hikes. We tried to follow one of the guide books to find a really cool looking waterfall, but when we got really close we couldn’t find it. We pulled over to the Ranger Station and the Ranger said she had no idea where this waterfall was. I think the guide book was incorrect in the end. However, the Ranger told us of some other kid friendly waterfalls just down the road. So we followed her advice and after a few miles we arrived at the Curly Falls and Miller Falls. The waterfalls were pretty cool, but we could only see them from a distance. The hike was really short, almost too short, but fun.

After we loaded back up in the car, we left Cougar, WA for good and headed out to Longview to cut some of day 4′s travel time and to get to sleep in a hotel bed. This bothered the kids because we would no longer be in a cabin, but after mentioning that the hotel had a pool all complaints stopped.

Day 4

Today’s plan was to play tourist at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, The Mt. St. Helens Learning Center, and any other stopped that seemed worthwhile along this road.

Our first stop was Mt. St. Helens Visitors Center at Silver Lake. We went inside and watched a movie about the eruption. Elissa was scared and Joey’s eyes were so big (if they can get any bigger). He thought is was “so cool.” After the movie, we walked around and checked out all the exhibits. Then we went on a short hike. Upon returning from the hike, one of the park rangers gave a presentation on volcanoes. Joey was fascinated. I later heard him explain plate tectonics to Elissa in the car.

Next, we stopped at The Mt. St. Helens Learning Center for a hour. They had a pretty cool playground here. The kids enjoyed walking up and sliding down a replica of Mt. St. Helens. Finally, we headed up to Johnston Ridge Observatory. We arrived just in time to see the final showing of their version of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens and the days before and after. After the movie, we went on a little hike up across the Johnston Ridge. We got to see a different perspective of the lava dome as we continued to walk. There was still snow on the trail, which meant we were attacked with snowballs eventually. Our hike ended when the remainder of the trail was roped off due to snow build up. This concluded our trip. We headed back down the trail and back to the car.

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