Ape Cave

This mission, should you chose to accept it, is to visit Ape Cave on Mount St. Helen's in Washington State. If you accept this misson and travel to Ape Cave, be sure to check out the Earth Cache there, as well as several others in the area.

Ape Cave is a lava tube located in Gifford Pinchot National Forest just to the south ofMount St. Helen's in Washinton state. Its passageway is the longest continuous lava tube in the continental United States and the third longest (in total mapped length) lava tube in North America at 2.5 miles (4,023 meters).  Ape Cave is a popular hiking destination with beautiful views of the Mount St. Helens lahar region. Lava tubes are an unusual formation in this region, as volcanoes of theCascades Range are mostly stratovolcanos and do not typically erupt with pahoehoe (fluid basalt).

The cave was discovered circa 1951 by Lawrence Johnson, a logger, when he noticed a tree that "looked wrong." After investigating the tree, he discovered it tilted into a lava tube collapse. A few days later, Johnson brought the Reese family back to the cave, and Harry Reese was lowered to the floor and became the first person to explore the interior. Subsequent explorations were conducted by members of the Mount St. Helens Apes, a local Boy Scout troop.

Ape Cave Trail No. 239, which runs along the interior of the cave, is a National Recreation Trail receiving 170,000 visitors each year.

We recently visited Ape Cave and Mount St. Helen's and picked up an Ape Cave keychain. Upon our arrival at home we decided to make this keychain a travel bug and send it on a mission to return to Ape Cave.