Balconies Caves Loop
Hike Review
I visited these caves when I hiked out after climbing Machete Ridge last year. But I remembered very little about it, so this hike felt brand new.
We hiked the caves in a clockwise direction by hiking the Balconies Trail, Balconies Cliff Trail, Balconies Caves Trail, and then back on the Balconies Trail. We chose this way so that the hike would warm us up, then we’d go through the cave, which was colder by 15-20 degrees.
The trail through the cave is a single, well-groomed trail that is pretty easy to walk. On parts where there is any danger, they provide handrails. The other trails were mostly double-track packed dirt trails that had 10-20% shade coverage.
There was only a short section where it was fully dark, otherwise, there was always light leaking through the gaps between the boulders that created this cave.
There didn’t seem to be too many people out on the trail, but the cave itself had a few sections where others waited for us or we waited for others.
There is a bathroom at the trailhead, but that’s about a mile away from the western balcony entrance.
Friends
We hiked with Kyle and his daughters Keva and Meara. It was 100% more fun hiking this with friends versus going alone. Keva has a great fear of heights and had some elevated stress on the Balconies Cliff Trail, but she did great once she had a friend to hold on to. Meara was the opposite and had no fear and I believe she took a picture on a boulder all by herself. It’s pretty interesting to see how similar yet different siblings are.
What Happened?
3.5 miles, 3 hrs 50 mins, 853 ft of ascent
I had wanted to show the Balconies Caves to the girls ever since I had taken to the other self-guided cave at Bear Gulch Caves. And when Cassie came into my life and I learned that she hadn’t been to Balconies Caves either, it just seemed like the thing to do. When I asked Kyle if he wanted to come, he was down, so we decided to meet up at the Balconies Cliffs-Cave Loop Trailhead at 8 AM.
When we got there, we decided to rock climb first, so we hiked to the Passion Play Area and did that for an hour or so before we decided to keep hiking. Before we started hiking though, Kyle generously carried back the climbing gear back to the cars so that we wouldn’t have to lug around all our climbing gear during the whole hike.
When Kyle got back, we headed up the Balconies Cliff Trail. The trail had a few exciting bits for Keva as she was not used to single-track trails with a steep slope next to it, but for others, it was just a beautiful trail that offered beautiful views of the beautiful rocks around us. For me, the highlight was seeing the Lava Falls rock climbing route on the Balconies itself, which is a 5.9 route that I want to do one day.
We then got to the western entrance to the Balconies Cave and headed inside. Inside the cave, we passed by a small stream and enjoyed the cool air after hiking in dry and warm conditions. The trail felt less like a cave compared to Bear Gulch Caves because there were shorter sections of complete darkness, but it was fun regardless. The highlight for me during this section was scampering on rocks next to the official trail and hiking the “fun” way out of the caves.
After the cave, we strolled back to the car and got in our cars. What awaited us was lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant—Cocuyos Restaurant. Lunch, as always, was divine and we left with our bellies full.
