Pluto's Cave

We finally made it!! The snow melted and the mud dried up and the clouds floated away and the Universe gave us the most spectacular weather for this excursion. I guess it's totally true; the third time is the charm.

I think caves are awesome, as long as I'm not exploring them alone. And this one did not disappoint. In fact, there were two caves, and we got to walk under a land bridge! It was amazing!!

But I'm getting ahead of myself so let's get back to the beginning. We headed out on a gorgeous, sunny day hoping to finally make it down the dirt road to the trail. You really have to pay attention as you are driving because the sign is super small, and the road isn't very visible. Once we turned off the main street, we had to drive really slow (I'm talking first gear all the way) to maneuver over and around giant potholes and rocks. Super fun in a sedan. (Not!)

We made it to the small parking lot, found a spot under a tree, and headed out into nature. There were two options to start; walk past the welcome sign, or follow the path on my handy dandy app. We chose the latter and still managed to get turned around. But would you expect anything less?

The trail started out narrow and then opened up to a field dotted with giant juniper trees. In some areas, the ground was covered in tiny yellow flowers, and in others there were bunches of purple blooms. It was gorgeous. We came to a pile of lava rocks and my daughter went left while I went to the right. My path seemed to come to an end, so I went to see where my child was, and realized that she was making a loop back to the car. So, I consulted my phone, and we went back the way I came, walked around the pile of rocks, and stood there trying to figure out where the trail was.

Trying not to trip over anything, I carefully stepped around the rocks as I watched the direction arrow weave back and forth over the path on my phone. Later, on our way back, I would see a red arrow spray painted on the pile of lava rocks, clearly indicating which way we were supposed to have gone. By now I have learned that, for me, going the wrong way is just part of the journey. (Wait, that might apply to my entire life and not just hiking. Hmmm...)

After a surprisingly short walk, we arrived at a giant hole in the ground. The name of the trail is "Pluto's Cave", not Caves (emphasis on the S), so I was excited to see that there were two caves, one on the left and one on the right. We had to traverse some rocks down to the bottom of the hole, but I was all for it. I just wanted to go see the caves!

The one on the left was the smaller of the two, so we started there. Walking toward the cave, there was a small cove on the left. It was dark and pretty deep, so I leaned forward to peek in and then turned to see what was on the other side. (No, I didn't go into the cove to find the end. I like to explore the parts I can see and remain alive so I can go explore something else on another day.) There was an opening on the other side of the cave that had been created by rocks falling in. I walked over and got close enough to peek up toward the plants above, but not close enough that any rocks could hit me if more started to fall. (You see, I have the excitement and giddiness of a child, but I'm also a big scaredy-cat. And my bear whistle was not going to save me from falling rocks.) Satisfied with being able to see the sunshine, we headed out, passing by a fire pit that was still warm and crackling. (This is what you call foreshadowing.)

Walking toward the other side of the giant pit, I realized that it wasn't a cave that I had seen, but a land bridge leading to a whole other area on the other side. Passing under the bridge, we found another cavern leading off to the right. It was bigger than the cove we had just seen and it seemed to go back a lot farther. I might have explored this one if I had a flashlight. But I didn't. Let's move on.

Heading up the small hill on the other side of the bridge, we got the best surprise. Yep, a third cave!! This one was way bigger than the first. There were little crevices and holes on the walls with dozens of birds flying in and out, and tons of rocks along the ground. We were on somewhat of a landing at the entrance, and as I was trying to figure out how we would get down to the bottom, my daughter spotted a ray of sunshine peeking through the back of the cave. As we traded places, my daughter let out a sound that was somewhere between a scream and a squeak (squeam? screak? IDK), covered her mouth with her hands and said "It's a human." Understanding that she was not hurt, I walked toward her and turned to look along her line of sight. There was definitely a human in the cave, shirtless and holding a very long walking stick, but far back enough that we couldn't see any other details. I yelled hello and asked if they were ok. They replied "yes", and we turned around and went back the way we came.

So much excitement for one day! Do I want to go back and explore that big cave? Absolutely! But I will have to bring a more adventurous hiking partner with me to do that. Maybe someone who has been there before and definitely someone with more experience. Maybe I'll pick up a can of bear spray as well - that would be much more effective in a cave situation than my little whistle.