The Wind Caves

 

I have been wanting to hike to the Wind Caves in Logan Canyon for quite some time now. Logan is far enough away that I figured we would make a weekend of it, you know go camping and stuff. However, I got a little impatient so we grabbed the kids and made a day trip out of it.

The drive up to Logan was rather pretty in and of itself. (DBP Album)

Logan Canyon (DBP)

The view up from the trailhead.

And up we go. One sign said 1.3 miles, another said 1.7 either way it doesn’t seem so bad.

This was a fantastic trail to get some fall colors in!

I think we chose a good time of year to do this trail. Most of it seemed to be in full sun so the cooler air made this enjoyable.

Nice glimpse of the canyon below.

Pink and blue.

I liked this part of the trail best. Very pretty with all of the leaves.

The trail has some rather thin and rocky sections.

 

Pretty colors!

Another pretty alcove.

Starting to get pretty high up the canyon.

Hey! lookie what I see!

 

From down here it looks a lot like a grey version of Double Arch in Arches.

 

Photo for comparison.

View up the canyon.

Lots of pinks and oranges up here!

Getting closer!

More color.

From here on out it was straight ridge hiking. We were out of the trees and up on this steep ridge where all I could see was the mountain side on the other side of the canyon. I kind of have issues with heights so I didn’t take too many pictures on this section.

Suddenly I was not feeling very well. I sat down to see if maybe a small rest would help. Unfortunately, it didn’t so I made us turn back. We got down to the next switchback and I decided I really wanted to see the wind caves, I really wanted the kids to see it, so we tried again.

We made it to the base of the rock outcroppings. The trail, that was barely wide enough for a person, on a steep ridge didn’t seem to improve, and I was getting worse and worse. To be honest, I don’t know if it was my phobia of heights or something else was going on because I never did feel any better until after I got some sleep. The kids were thrilled to be able to run around in the “caves” so I was happy we got this far. Looking back I am happy we turned around as about halfway down the kids were obviously very tuckered out. I am glad we didn’t push further.

I really wish I had taken more pictures while we were up here, I still don’t know how close to the caves we were. But the main trail looped back to the right, however I can see a trail following the base of the rocks to the left. hrm.

This is back where I was comfortable enough on the trail to take a picture. It kind of shows what the trail looked like in the section I had trouble with. Just imagine higher, and steeper, and less trees.

Washed out photo but ug. Now I can really see just how close we were to the caves and wish I had toughed it out to them. Yes, if you are not feeling well, you probably shouldn't keep going, but we were so close! The switch backs couldn’t have been much further before going up over the outcroppings and down to the caves. I will have to try again.

Still loving all the color!

From below again.

One of the pretty little alcoves again.

Another pretty canyon view.

After we reached the canyon floor, we hopped over to the camp site across the road to use the restrooms. I found this pretty stream.

Downtown Logan. I love the bluebird. We didn’t stop today but did on our return trip from Bear Lake a few years back and I really enjoyed the food and atmosphere. (DBP)

A reservoir. (DBP)

Sigh. Failing to complete the hike I cannot give it a fair rating. What I did do, with the beautiful fall colors makes me want to give it a good 10 out of 10, even with the scary section. But, I failed to complete the hike so I will leave it unrated. I will say it is marked difficult, this time of year, I didn’t find it to be particularly difficult physically, but that scary ridge was well, scary. I saw numerous kids, but as a nervous nelly parental type I would not recommend bringing the kids on your first attempt.

When I returned home I just had to see how close we got. Google maps helps. You can see the ridge we hiked, and where we stopped (purple x) and the destination (green circle) We were pretty close, but still had a ways to go. Zooming in it looks like we had a little bit more up to do then it appears the trail flattens out and follows behind the rock outcroppings shortly after where we stopped, but then getting to the actual caves appears to get confusing with a bunch of trail splits. Of course this is just guessing based upon the overhead map view. All in all, we still had a wonderful time and it is an amazing trail to do. Learned a good lesson, don’t take the kids on hikes we have not done yet. Obviously a return trip is in order.