Unique Caves in Washington

Washington is known for its grand, sweeping vistas overlooking forest-covered hills, snow-capped peaks and glacial blue lakes hidden among ancient volcanoes. 

There’s certainly plenty to see above ground, especially if you climb high enough! But did you know that Washington’s trails also venture deep below the surface?

Yup! Washington has some pretty neat caves all over the state. From ice caves to talus caves to limestone caves and more, here are a few of the state’s most underground attractions.

5 popular caves around Seattle

Big Four Ice Caves

Type of cave: glacial cave

Erroneously called an “ice cave,” this popular attraction is actually a glacial cave: a type of cave created by water melting a passage underneath a glacier. 

Created by melting snow and ice cascading down the side of Big Four Mountain in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, this collection of caves draw thousands of visitors during the spring and summer months when the ice is at its fullest. They’re not as big as other caves in the state — measuring around 100 feet deep at the deepest cave — but they’re a great place to visit if you’re looking for a good hike, a close-up look at a glacier and some of the coolest (hah!) cave experiences out there!

Paradise Ice Caves

Type of cave: glacial cave

This cave is another glacial cave that formed in much the same way as the Big Four Ice Caves, though these formed under the Paradise Glacier at Mount Rainier National Park. 

Unfortunately, Paradise Glacier has retreated so much that the caves have collapsed and the National Parks Service closed the caves permanently in the early 1990s. Today, they don’t even exist and the portion of glacier that once stood over their location is gone. 

Gardner Cave

Type of cave: limestone cave/solution cave

One of the only limestone caves of its kind in the state (and the longest!), Gardner Cave is located nearly directly on the United States/Canadian border north of Metaline Falls in Eastern Washington. 

Though visitors can only access the first 494 feet of the 2,072-foot-long cave, they’re still treated to some spectacular sights of flowstones, stalactites, stalagmites and pools, all of which formed over the past 500 million years! The cave is located in Crawford State Park and is open to the public during tour times!

Marmes Rockshelter

Type of cave: rockshelter

A rockshelter is another type of cave that isn’t technically a cave, but it’s still just as worthwhile mentioning — especially this one in southeast Washington.

Just a few miles downriver of Palouse Falls near the confluence between the Snake River and the Palouse River is a unique rock formation called the Marmes Rockshelter. As with much of the landscape in that area, the cliffs around rivers are defined by layers of dark volcanic basalt, divided into sublayers of basalt columns below a layer of irregular basalt. River waters and wind erode away the column layer faster than the irregular layer, since the smooth columns break easier than the complex interlocking shapes above, leaving behind ledges of rock over wide shallow caves. 

These rockshelters— which, by the way, are always wider than they are deep — occur all over the world and have great historic significance, as indigenous cultures have used the naturally-occurring “caves'” for shelter, cooking and rituals for millennia. 

Archaeologists investigated this particular rockshelter for that very reason, uncovering evidence of cooking utensils, hunting tools, food remnants, burial areas and coastal trade items dating back 9,700 years ago!

Unfortunately, at the time that archaeologists were uncovering these artifacts in the late 1960s, the Lower Monumental Dam was scheduled to be closed and the floodplain above flooded. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to delay closing the dam’s gates for about a year, but eventually the dam gates shut and the floodplain above was submerged — including the area where Marmes Rockshelter is located. Today, the site is around 40 feet underwater. 

Boulder Cave 

Type of cave: talus cave

Located along the Naches River in Yakima County just 40 minutes from Yakima, Boulder Cave is a great example of a talus cave, or boulder cave, that was created due to erosion. 

The landscape there is characterized by layers of basalt over softer rock, both a result of volcanic activity from nearby Mount Rainier. Devils Creek — a tributary of Naches River — slowly eroded the soft rock from underneath the harder basalt rock, causing large basalt boulders and slabs to collapse over each other and create dark caverns in the cracks. 

These caves are important to several populations of bats, including Townsend's big-eared bat, the northern long-eared bat, the big brown bat and the little brown bat, all of which use the cave for shelter and as a safe place to hibernate. Due to habitat destruction and disease caused by human-introduced fungus, the bat population has shrunk from the thousands to just handfuls, so the trail is completely closed to visitors from the months of October to May so the little creatures can hibernate in peace. 

Next time you’re looking for a different kind of hike, a geologic adventure or a chance to explore somewhere new, check out these caves and see how their environments have shaped their existence. And, they’re all within a few hours of our luxury Seattle apartments, so you’re never too far from your above-ground home at the end of the day. 

Enjoy!

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Featured photo courtesy Pixabay/Pexels