Big Four Ice Caves

Some times I feel like I am standing in middle of my dream and my dream comes true before I could realize. Big Four Ice Cave trip is one of them. It took few moments to accept that I was inside a room of an ice cave with continuous water dropping from the top and warning me about the danger I am into. It's true that people had died and injured badly in these caves in past. However, it is very hard to resist myself not to go inside the blue caves to make a lifetime memory of few seconds. The first picture is from one of the ice caves looking outside.

Generally ice caves are found in glaciers. Big Four Ice Caves are not among them. To understand the formation, let's see where the ice caves are located. The following picture was taken on my second trip to that area during sunrise. In this photo, left one is Big Four mountain and caves are formed at the foothill. It is very obvious that this side of Big Four is really steep and not ideal for holding any big mass. This is the main reason the snow and ice just cannot stay there for long time. Avalanche happens and snow and ice get accumulated at the foothill following paths of narrow waterfalls. The huge snow becomes thick ice. At the same time, water from melted snow makes its own path through the ice forming the ice caves. As the caves are located in a place where sun ray hardly enters for few minutes during the daytime, the ice layer does not get enough heat for melting. Every year the layer is getting thicker since 1976.

Now its is time to mention what you need to make it to these ice caves. It is a easy 2 miles hike to the 1st big cave. My 3 years old daughter made it herself all the way to the cave and came back to parking lot without any extra help. A bottle of water, simple walking shoes and jacket will be sufficient. Once you reach the end of the designated trail, you will find boulders of different sizes in front of the big cave. These are moraines brought by the avalanche. In front of the ice cave, it will feel like you are standing in front of a big refrigerator. The temperature drops drastically and if it is a windy day, you cannot stay there for long time. So make sure you take a jacket to stay warm. There is only one pit restroom in parking area and does not have any water supply. Few picnic tables are located near the trail head so that you can have some food with a nice view of Big Four Mountain once finish exploring the area.

Direction: Getting there is not that tough and I am always ready to navigate you. If you really want to avoid me, drive to Granite Falls, WA and take the Mountain Loop Highway for around 25 miles till you see Big Four Picnic area on your right.

I like to mention again that do not enter inside any ice caves. Many of my pictures like the left one are taken with a zoom lens outside from the cave.