Darby Wind Cave Hike

Summer in the Intermountain West is for hiking, in my opinion. A group of 5 moms agreed, and we took our 9 kids to hike up to the Darby Wind Cave. The info we read said that it was a 5.3 mile hike round trip, but according to our GPS, it was more like 7.5 miles and 3000' of elevation gain! That being said, the kids were troopers!

We left bright and early for the 1.25 hr drive, and it was chilly and raining when we parked at the trailhead. Thankfully, it stopped after just a few minutes, and the overcast skies were a blessing, although it was a bit humid.

It was a really beautiful hike. It felt like we were in a rainforest, but it had a bit of everything: wildflower meadows, water crossings, caves, waterfalls, pine forests, rocky canyons.

The waterfalls were very accessible, and it was fun to go behind them.

But the final destination was Darby Wind Cave, which we could see as an ominous slit in the canyon wall several times on our approach. It's the cave at the top. We thought that the white stuff coming out of the cave was probably ice (as we'd heard from people who hiked a few weeks ago), but it turned out to be a roaring, freezing waterfall!

After lunch, we finally reached the cave. You can see the waterfall and the scale of it in these pictures. It turns out that we had to walk through the waterfall, scramble up wet rocks, and walk through the waterfall again to enter the cave. We formed a mom-chain to pass the kids across the line of rocks visible in the second picture, but it was impossible not to get your feet wet or even numb, if you were in the water long enough.

As I was scrambling up the wet rocks, I had some vertigo, which didn't go well with being on a mountainside next to a raging waterfall, so I opted to stop at the cave opening. Here was my view; it's so hard to convey the steepness with a cell phone camera.

There was a slip on the rocks, some bleeding, and some dissenters, but 5 kids (including my 2!) and 2 moms were still ready to brave the cave!

They ventured far enough in to need their headlamps, and they found an iceberg that probably survives most of the year in the cave. The kids really enjoyed the adventure!

Thankfully, we all survived with only minor bruises, cuts, and wet, cold feet. Now to head 3.5 miles back! Owen was up in the front with the older boys for most of the hike. Hadley and her pal, Ella, were the youngest hikers and trailed at the back of the pack. I stayed behind to make sure they kept moving.  Sometimes Ali, just a year older, straggled with them too. Lots of candy bribes may have been distributed.

The sun came out on the hike back, so Hadley found some leaves that were good for a little shade or to brush away the flies.

On the way back to the car, there were lots of distractions (butterflies, flowers, leaves, rocks, etc.), but to their credit, they hiked the whole thing! Squishy wet shoes and all.