Caves: Local Vicinity

 For more pictures of local caves, click here.

Big 4 Ice Caves - Self Guided Trip – Directions will be available at the convention.

The caves are approximately 80 miles from Bellingham. A Google search on “Big 4 Ice Caves” yields several sites. Rather than duplicate their great work here I recommend taking a look: http://glaciercaves.com/html/bigfou_1.HTM.

Church Mountain Cave - Self-Guided Trips

The entrance is located in an eight foot by ten foot pit that is approximately six feet deep. Two passages lead off from the entrance, one to the south and one to the west. The south trending passage leads through very sharp pendants and ends within twenty feet in a streamway crawl that is too tight for people and possibly ends in the small valley to the south of the cave. The passage trending west is approximately two feet in diameter and is floored by smooth cobbles and two to six inches of water depending on the amount of recent rain. The tube meanders nearly one hundred feet before opening into crawling and then walking passage. The entrance crawl last for approximately 15-20 minutes. There are several small stalactites and some curtains in this portion of the cave. Eventually you will come to a black slab that leads up at a 45 degree angle to a very narrow stream passage at the top. Beyond the constriction, the passageway remains narrow and several small waterfalls can be heard. The passage eventually gets too tight and the explorer must return the way they came.

Self-guided trips will be available during convention. Directions to the cave will be available at convention. Sign-up sheets will be posted at convention in the trips area near registration.

Cypress Island - Guided trip during convention.  Click here for more information.

Jackman Creek Cave - Self-Guided Trips

Jackman Creek Cave is formed in marble and consists of a phreatic tube modified by vadose down cutting. There are several soda straws, pendants and some flowstone in the entrance to the cave as well as numerous Harvestman. The cave drills straight back into the hillside for approximately fifty feet then begins to meander a bit before crossing a small lake and then splitting into two passages. The left passage is a textbook keyhole passage that has been filled in by mud and sand. The passage takes a ninety degree turn to the left and then another back to the right and at the same time begins to get tighter and finally gets too tight for most of us. The passage to the right does nearly the same and ends in a linear tube with several small stalactites blocking further exploration. An oval side passage in this extension leads to an aven that intersects the overlying cap rock approximately twenty feet up. There is evidence of a dig in this room which may eventually lead to the lower level.

Self-guide trips will be offered to Jackman Creek in conjunction with self-guided trips to Three Mile Creek. The two caves are in the same area. Due to the small size of the caves, the number of trips will be limited. Sign-up sheets will be posted at convention in the trips area near registration. Directions will be available at convention. Passenger cars are able to negotiate the final dirt roads to Jackman Creek.

Senger’s Talus Cave - Self-Guided Trips

Senger’s Talus Cave is formed in, as its name suggests, a boulder pile. The cave sits at the base of a 200-300 foot high cliff. Do not let the nature of the caves fool you. This is a cave of substance. Some of the boulders that have peeled off the cliff are the size of a house. With multiple entrances and over 2,000 feet of surveyed passage there is plenty to explore. And, if you go looking for it, there is a reasonable chance you will find virgin passage.

The passages range in size from impassable holes to stand up rooms and open air pits. Being a boulder pile, the cave passage is where the boulders are not. As such it is a mazy cave. The inattentive explorer could spend more time in the cave than anticipated if the way out is not noted on the way in.

The lowest levels of the cave intersect the water table and there are lakes as deep as 15 feet. More water-filled passage is likely.

Although light filters into many of the cave’s passages, there is plenty of passage that is in total darkness. The cave is also, like most Washington caves, on the cool side. Standard caving gear, including redundant lighting is required. Vertical caving gear is not necessary.

The trail-head for the cave is approximately 17 miles by road from convention. The hike to the cave is approximately 1.5 miles. The hike itself is on forest trails with, at most, a moderate grade. Even if you do not go in the cave, with stunning views of Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands, the hike alone is worth the trip.

Trips to Senger’s Talus Cave will be self-guided. Sign-up sheets will be available near the registration area. Trips will be limited to four a day to prevent too much group overlap. The cave can accommodate large group sizes, on the order of 10-15 people, as long as the group splits up and fans out into different areas of the cave. Maps and directions will be available near registration.

Three-Mile Creek – Self-guided trip (guided trips will be available pre and post convention, click here for more information)

Details for self-guided trips will be available at convention in the trips area near registration.

Elevation: approx. 3,000 ft.

In his book Caves of Washington, William R. Halliday describes this cave as "a single roomy passage about 70 ft in maximum length."  Through much digging in the rear of the cave, the buried passage that was mentioned briefly in Dr. Halliday’s cave description has been uncovered.  We approximate that the passage is currently about 20 ft long with a sharp turn to the right near the beginning.  The passage is approximately 2 feet wide and currently about 3 feet tall, but the floor consists of the mud and clay that is being removed by curious cavers in search of virgin passage.  The ceiling of the passage entrance is very interesting in that it is covered with perfectly preserved mosquitoes that appear to have the rock growing around them.

There is the promise of yet another buried passage near the entrance to the cave on the left, but no excavation has yet begun there.  There is no information yet available for this.

All-in-all, the cave is still fairly small and doesn’t have much to it.  There is much digging to be done to uncover the wonders that nature has buried, but if you are looking for an easy access digging project, you can’t get much better than this.  The cave is just a few hundred feet off the road in a stand of trees.

Windy Creek Cave - Guided trip during convention.  Click here for more information.