Descending into El Capitan Cave, Alaska

My intrepid group of spelunkers

Jackie crawling to the underground otter den

At the opening to El Cap Cave

Sign of loggings past

  Everyone knows about the whales, bears, glaciers, and beautiful kayaking of Alaska's Inside Passage. But a little known secret connects its way underground all through Prince of Wales Island. It is a karst cave system that spans across 13,000ft. El Capitan is the longest mapped cave and a National Forest Interpretive Site. This is a great place to see a relatively young cave system with an interesting history.

My favorite tree

Tackling 370 steps to the cave

In the early 1990's a cave explorer found perfectly preserved bones inside a hard to get to room in El Cap Cave. He named the room the Hibernaculum and the scientist that followed were amazed at the condition of a large black bear skeleton, as well as a couple of unusual finds. Brown bear, wolverine, and red fox bones were also found in the Hibernaculum which puzzled the scientific community because none of these animals exist on Prince of Wales Island today. Some of the bones were dated back 12,300 years, which also meant that the glaciers most likely did not cover this part of SE Alaska during the last great ice age which was contrary to the belief at the time. The discover of the hibernaculum inspired more research into the prehistory of Southeast Alaska.

  370 stairs lead up through the temperate rainforest to the opening of El Cap cave. As you ascend the foliage around you changes from new growth to old growth forest as giant cedar, spruce, and hemlock trees come into view. Their roots work their way down into the limestone bed which the constant rain has eaten away to make the cave system.

Lighting up the Cave

  Inside the cave tiny stalactites and stalagmites are just starting to form and other carbonate formations are lit up by our flashlights. Tiny otter dens provide fun crawl spaces for the intrepid cavers. It is wild to think about an otter finding these dens deep a cave in pitch blackness. The constant dripping of water from some parts of the roof give a glimpse into the time frame it must take for caves like this to form.
 

Water filled from here

    There is always something mysterious and foreign about entering a cave. And as we turn off our lights to bask in the blackness, our other senses take over. The cool 40 degree temperature and constant dripping of water take over as the dominant sensory inputs. Before anyone in the group gets too claustrophobic we flip back on the lights and head out into the now warm feeling 65 degree Alaskan summer.

Old Growth Along the Trail