Big 4 Mountain Ice Cave

Big 4 Mountain on Mountain Loop Highway
Outside Granite Falls

 My glorious plan for the warming months of May and into June here in Washington, was to get out with my 4WD machine and explore the sights and hikes in my backyard. I'd made my first foray in May up to Darrington to scout the Mountain Loop Highway, a 55 mile partially paved car trail that links the Cascade Mountain towns of Darrington and Granite Falls with plenty of hikes into the mountains, around lakes and beside rivers and streams. I'd finished my trip to Darrington, but the MLH had yet to be opened for the season - opening estimated for around Memorial Day.

I return home to The Pilchuck from my north-end scouting trip only to have by transmission destroyed when the drain plug inexplicably rattled out, leaking all of the essential tranny fluid and stopping my forward progress. Twenty-three days later after being in solitary confinement with no transport, my 4Runner was returned with a rebuilt transmission. Eager to make up for lost time, I drove to Granite Falls on the south end of the Loop to head back into the Cascades to explore.

At the top of my list was the Big 4 Ice Cave. Big 4 Mountain, so named because its eastern face has a set of fractures that form the numeral 4 when seen in the spring and summer as the white snow-filled fracture contrasts with the dark rock. At the base of Big 4 Mountain is a talus field and large avalanche shoot that accumulates a delta shaped mound of snow. In the summer and fall, one of the numerous waterfalls which feeds into the top of the snow pile at the base of the avalanche shoot, hollows out an ice cave opening the water flows through the pile of ice at the base of the mountain.

An element of danger awaits at the end of the trail

At least five people have been killed this century by collapsing ice or rockfalls at the end of the trail. I believe most hikers disregard the danger and approach the base of Big 4 Mountain. I understand the allure, but I stayed on the trail at a safe distance as advised.

The trail from the picnic area is 1.1 miles (one way) to the ice cave. It is an easy hike, with modest elevation gain and expansive boardwalks that cross the marsh created by generations of beaver in the beautiful alpine valley. 

A large-leaf plant grows in the marsh. 
US Forest Service build boardwalks
make the marshland passable.

From the parking area one can see a handful of tiny, lacy ribbons of water cascading over the steep face of the mountain. I was eager to get a closer look, telling myself, I should not tempt fate and get too close to the danger zone at the base of the mountain where tumbling rocks or ice can smash one's head in an instance. 

The view and the end of the trail did not disappoint.

It was too early in the season for significant ice cave to have been hollowed out at the base of the accumulated avalanche snow and ice delta. But if you look close, you can see a small ice cave beginning to form at the leading edge. The cave will be enlarged through summer and fall by the action of the flowing water feeding into the snow from above.