Monkeying around in the Ape Caves with our friends.

It was a beautiful day today and we didn't have plans, so we decided to go hiking in the Ape Caves!  The Ape Caves are awesome!  So we invited our friends to come with us.  We had so much fun!

To start, we almost got stuck in the snow on the way up.  Someone (not mentioning names, but his starts with "R", ends with "N", and has "YA" in the middle ;P) was stubborn and wouldn't put on the snow chains because we were just a couple of miles from the parking lot.  We did get stuck for a few minutes, but after some manuevering and a little "push", we got going again.

We bundled up, stocked our pack with snacks, and headed out to the opening of the cave.



We have to climb down a couple of stairwells to get to the floor of the cave, then we start our hike!



Hiking in the caves is fun!  But also difficult and dangerous.  Of course, it is pitch black!  Plus, there isn't a smooth floor in the entire cave.  There is rocky... and more rocky.  lol  Sometimes the path is littered with boulders from wall to wall.  Other times the lava flow left tunnels, some so small you need to craw to get through...



At one point, you come to a wall 8 feet tall with few footholds available.  It's nearly impossible to get past it without at least one other adult there to help push or pull you up.



I am so proud of Aurora; she hiked a lot of it herself.  Of course, she did need Ryan to carry her for a lot of it, but I was very surprised at how much she managed all by herself!  And she was in such a happy mood, I think she felt very grown up doing such a "big girl thing".  I would ask, "How are you doing, Rori?"  And she would say, "I doing good.  Don't worry about it!"  LOL

After a couple hours of hiking, we made it to the ladder that would take us up and out...



As soon as we were all out of the caves, a snowfight ensued... naturally!



After hiking for 2-3 hours underground, we now needed to hike through the snow just as far to get back to our car.  This time, we didn't have boulders or walls to scale, so we managed to make this hike in about an hour. ;)



Here are some other pics I took.  First, some from in the caves:



And then some out of the caves:



We had such a great time!  It was a beautiful day... of course, we spent a lot of our time underground, but when we were above ground, it was beautiful!  And with all the climbing and hiking, it made for a very good workout as well!  We were all anxious to take nice, hot showers when we got home... And I might sleep with a heat pad tonight. ;)