This was our first trip to the Ape Caves though I'd been wanting to go for quite some time. We got there at 11 and the parking lots were already full and ppl were parking down the road so the cave was already quite highly populated. The other groups were all polite, the slower ppl letting us pass just as we let the faster folks pass us. We hiked upper and started at the entrance near the interpretive center and worked our way up.

We were prepared with jackets, gloves, sturdy boots, headlamps & spare flashlights. Batteries are good to bring too as we ran into more than one person whose batteries had died and were relying on others for light. Gave most of our spares out but withheld one set for ourselves.

I picked up the previously mentioned beer cans along the way, and my pack was full of trash by the time I got to the end. I'm surprised that with as many rangers as I saw around the interpretive center they didn't assign one to make a clean up run through the place on a daily basis. Maybe check for bodies along the way! I can't believe how many people were dragging their young children through the upper cave which is clearly marked as being not recommended for young children.

Once I made it through there was a good-sized crowd milling around the head of the stairway to climb out. No one wanted to come down, they just wanted to stand there and look into the cave, take pictures, etc. Would be nice if people would realize that the people coming out of the cave have been in the dark for 2-4 hours and give them a little room to climb out without having to squeeze by.

As much fun as I had, this place is dangerous. You will be climbing over rocks and boulders through pitch blackness for a mile and a half or 2-4 hours depending on your speed. There are lots of cracks and crevices just waiting for a foot or leg to slip into and twist or break. I can't imagine how many rescues they must carry out of here each year. My husband had to gently coax one child out of a complete and total screaming meltdown at the foot of the second big climb. He was terrified and crying and did not want to go any further, but had already passed the 8 ft wall and couldn't go back either. People were backed up in both directions waiting and this poor kid was just stuck. I would NOT recommend this hike for children under 12 and even then only if they're relatively athletic kids.

We started the drive from Puyallup through Randall to get to the Ape Caves early. Stopped at Windy Ridge for a look at the mountain and log-filled Spirit Lake on the way down, but made it to the Ape Caves parking lot early enough that there was plenty of parking available.

We chose to go the opposite route that most people were choosing, hiking to the upper cave entrance and then exploring the cave from the top to the main entrance. In retrospect, I'm glad we did so as there were many groups going the other way and we would have almost certainly gotten stuck behind slower groups.

The caves are awesome with amazing rock features throughout. I would consider gloves and sturdy boots a must for the upper cave section, although I saw plenty of sandals and thin shoes in the groups we came across.

I was surprised as we made our way down to the main entrance the number of people we passed that had no idea as to what conditions were ahead. Several groups that had traveled less than 30 minutes in from the main entrance were expecting to reach the upper end of the cave at any time after traversing only a small number of the 20+ rock piles along the way.

We met several groups with small children or elderly members who were struggling with even the easier portions of the cave system and who seemed to be unaware that more difficult obstacles (including climbing over the 8 foot lava fall) were yet to come. More than one group contained sandal-shod, t-shirt wearing teens and twenty-somethings that recalled completing the upper section in less than an hour in the past. Their groups seemed surprised when we indicated to them that we were nearly two hours in from the upper entrance.

When we got to the main entrance, I realized the reason for some of the confusion. Some idiot scraped away the "1" from the 1-1/2 mile length of the upper trail on the sign posted at the bottom of the stairs. The sign now shows that the upper cave is only 1/2 mile in length. Probably the same idiot who drank beer and smoked cigarettes all the way down, leaving his beer cans and butts along the way. Thanks, jerk. Hope your sign destruction doesn't lead to hordes of unprepared groups heading up and getting injured in the upper cave.

Of course, much of this would be avoided if more groups would study the intended hike on wta.org before starting out! Great site and tons of useful information. Thanks for maintaining the awesome site!

It was very crowded on a Saturday morning but we noticed that most people opt for the lower/shorter tube. We encountered 4-5 other parties during the 1.5 miles in the upper cave.

We had only headlamps, which are good for illuminating where you're walking but poor at showing the entire cave. After two hours underground, my headlamp was dying and we were glad to have a lantern as a backup in the pack. Next time, I'd bring taller boots (with ankle support) and leather gloves as there is quite a bit of scrambling over wet rock piles.

There is also one 8' wall halfway through that requires scaling. Evidently there was a rope at one point, but it is not longer in place and there is only one meager foot hold. I'm 5'7" and would have had a tough time getting up it without a hand from my husband. Or a boost from behind.

We also had a toddler in a backpack and he had a ball although there were several spots that were low and required my husband to do some pretty careful navigation as to not bump the baby's noggin. Definitely not a recommended route for young hikers. I've heard that the lower cave is ideal for kids as it's pretty flat and doesn't have many rock piles.

The hike back to the parking lot is quite pretty.