Ape Cave

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Ape Cave is a lava tube located in Gifford Pinchot National Forest just to the south of Mt. St. Helens in Washington, USA. At 13,042 feet (3,976 m), it is the third-longest continuous lava tube in the continental United States. Lava tubes are an unusual formation in this region, as volcanoes of the Cascade Mountain Range tend toward the stratovolcano type and do not typically erupt with pahoehoe (fluid basalt).

Ape Cave is located near the site of Ape Canyon, the location of a reported attack on miners by ape like creatures in the 1924. Ape canyon now is a popular hiking destination with beautiful views of the Mt. St. Helens Lahar region.

A logger named Lawrence Johnson discovered Ape Cave in 1947 when his truck fell into a sinkhole and in there he came upon the entrace to the cave. A scout troop under the leadership of Henry Reese performed the first exploration in 1950; they named the cave for their sponsor, the St. Helens Apes: a group of local scouts, sometimes called brush apes (possibly owing to local legends of bigfoot).