Caves: King County

Cave Ridge Caves

This introduction provided by Mark Sherman

NOTE: A post convention trip to Hellhole and Cascade on is being offered on Sunday, August 13th, click here for more information.

During convention trips are being offered on the 7th, 9th, and 11th (click here for more information) and on the 8th and 10th (click here for more information).

Cave Ridge is located one hour east of Seattle, just off Interstate 90, at Snoqualmie Pass. There are a dozen small marble caves located in a beautiful alpine setting on the top of the ridge. The hike to the caves is a boot-beaten climbers trail and is very steep, gaining 2000 feet of elevation in less than two miles. It takes between 1.5 and 2 hours for most people who are in reasonable shape. If you can ignore the difficulty of the hike, it really is a fabulous area, with views into the Alpine Lake Wilderness Area and with Mount Rainier in the distance.

An interesting note on this area is that there are bands of magnetite in the mountains north of Snoqualmie Pass – including some on Cave Ridge. This adds some challenge to surveying here.

By Convention-time, most of the snow should have melted so the streams in the caves should be down to a trickle. Contrary to what people have heard, it does rain in western Washington, so the caves can be quite damp. They are also cold, with the temperature in the upper 30’s Fahrenheit.

Here is a brief description of the larger and more interesting of the caves:

Newton Cave
With over 1,800 feet of passage, it is the longest and deepest of the caves on Cave Ridge. The entrance can be down-climbed but because of the slick rock, you might feel more comfortable with a hand-line. The passage then leads to a 35-foot rope drop. Once past this first drop the cave continues steeply downwards and then divides into two separate, parallel pits. Both reach bottom at around 460 feet deep. The main series, then gets tight with the Colin Crawl followed by the Lightning Passage and then a final rope-pitch (the 5th), which puts you at a depth of close to 600 feet.

Hellhole Cave
This cave is probably the most interesting cave on the Ridge. The reason for this is the allophane that coats some of the walls. The mineral ranges in color from blood red to orange and yellow. There are two entrances to Hellhole. The main entrance is a very tight hole, roughly the size and shape of a coat hanger, which enters the top of a 60-foot high chamber. The Back Door is no more than 30 feet from the main entrance and was dug open in the 80’s. It is much wider but does present it own challenge of squeezing into the entrance chamber. This little room is beautifully colored with the allophane. It is then a 50-foot drop to the bottom where there is more allophane and some beautiful fluted marble.

Cascade Cave
This cave can be seen without the need of vertical gear. There is one tricky down-climb where a rope does come in handy. The entrance is a series of small chambers, one on top of the other. There is a hand-line here, which is especially helpful on the climb out. Before you get to the last and longest down-climb, a short passage veers off to the left for about 15 feet. Find the hole in the ceiling of this passage and continue into the main part of the cave. There is some beautiful banded marble in the lower passages of this cave.

Danger Cave
This cave has one 40-foot drop close to the entrance. It then continues for another 200 feet. About halfway down, a small stream enters the cave and follows the passage through a narrow 15-foot down-climb. The passage then opens back up into a large breakdown-filled chamber.

Lookout Cave
The entrance to this cave is a 45-foot chimney that is easily negotiated without rope. Below this is a 35-foot rope drop into a large single room.