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Big Four Ice Caves
Dec 7, 2017
What a marvelous gem of a place! This is on the Mountain Loop Hwy in Washington and the only downside is that it took us 3 hours drive from Maple Ridge. It is really worth the trek! The MLH was also quite frosty and slippery so drive carefully in this cold clear weather.
The parking lot gives you a full view of the Big Four Mountain. An old hotel once stood on this site but all that is left is its chimney. The trail in had hard packed snow and ice so our microspikes came in handy. You enter a forest, cross a river over a big metal bridge and after a mile or so you'll start to see some trees that have been sheered off by old avalanches. The caves will soon come into view. You are advised not to go in them or climb on them but it's really hard not to. They appeared pretty frozen and firm on this trip and my friend took some wonderful photos from inside the caves. I stayed outside and kept watch!
We then trekked over to the right to some waterfalls and found 2 more caves. There is a bit of a hill up to see the falls and we kept on the well trampled down path in the snow. I noticed some areas off to the side through spaces in the snow where there were significant drops.
We initially thought we would do another trail in the area but there was lots to check out at the caves. I initially found this trail on the Washington Trails Association website. Lake Twentytwo, Lime Kiln Trail, Robe Canyon Trail and others are nearby and described on the website, along with trip reports. There are also several campgrounds in the area although I don't know if any are open right now.(One of the locals told us you could just pitch a tent off the highway without any fuss).
Also, a day pass is required to park at the trailhead. It's $5.00 and available online. Info is on the WTA website.
Update December 23rd: I just checked on the WTA website. Mountain Loop highway is closed about 2 miles before the parking lot and there has been an avalanche at the caves, completely obliterating them! Fortunately it looks like no one was inside at the time. I've added a photo of the cave area as it now appears.Reads:95 Comments:1 Likes:1
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