Grist Mill and Ape Cave

This summer we had a chance to run up to Washington to visit the Ape Cave near Mount St. Helens.  Ethan found this nice little grist mill for us to visit on the way there.  It was fun to explore and see the working mill.  

Close to the Ape Cave is this quick little hike called the Trail of Two Forests that shows what happens when lava flows through a forest.  

Here we have a lava cast that formed when the lava flowed around the trees.  The kids had great fun crawling through these lava casts.  The had to do it again and again.

Here they are with their Aunt Kimberly who was visiting at the time.

After this short hike, we went to the Ape Cave.  The Ape Cave is a 2.5 mile long lava tube formed around 2,000 years ago.  The eruption that formed this lava tube is special because it was the only known basaltic eruption from this volcano.  Basaltic lava is common in Hawaii but not in the Cascade Range.  I also thought it was interesting that a logger discovered the cave in 1947 but the cave wasn't explored until the early 1950's by a scout troop.  They are the ones that named it the Ape Cave in honor of their sponsor the St. Helens Apes.

I don't have any pictures of our walk through the cave.  There were a lot of people going through that day.  And it was dark.  And, I don't really enjoy being in caves so I wasn't really in the mood to get out my camera.  But the kids had fun.  I'll admit, it was pretty interesting to walk through such a long, huge tube.  But I will also admit I got a little bored.  Cave, cave, cave, all the way to the end, then you have to turn around and walk back out.

I do, however, love seeing all the different things there are to see in this world.  I've been in such a small part of this world, but what I've seen is amazing.  I love that we try as best as we can to explore every inch of where we are. We have done and seen so much in our three years here in the Pacific Northwest, and there is still SO MUCH left for us to explore.