Cave of the Winds

Cave of the Winds is a Los Alamos local destination that is surprisingly secret; I have met lifelong locals who have never heard of it. It’s a cave. A classic, straight-out-of-a-movie cave. Big and dark, with some small side passages to explore. The boys love it–what boy wouldn’t? When I was young boy, growing up in New Jersey, I dreamed of caves like this–motivated no doubt by Goonies and other such classics. Astonishingly, we now live in a place that actually has a real cave. The drive is only 10 minutes from our house, and the hike is only an hour one-way (that’s an hour KT, or “kid time”… when carrying the 2 year old, with the 4 and 6 year old hiking themselves).

The last time I took Bodie and Jasper up there, we brought a wax candle stub and lighter and they really enjoyed lighting the candle and huddling around it like it was a mini campfire, insisting of course on turning off the headlamps to improve the effect.

Comments:

The hike is wide open and treeless, meaning that it can get toasty hot. It can be done anytime of year of course, depending on whether you love the scorching heat or bitter cold. I usually try to keep it to a particularly warm winter day (lacking snow) or the spring/fall.
The last 50m long slope to get down to the cave opening is a bit steep. I would describe it as an easy scramble that requires that you stay below and close to the children, and spot them down each little section. A trip and fall would result in a bit of a short nasty tumble. Don’t let that deter you, it really isn’t that hard.
It can be difficult to find the opening of the cave if you don’t know where you’re going. I recommend using my GPS track/waypoints if you want to assure navigational success. However the worst that can happen is you don’t find it–the topography of the hike is such that it is nigh impossible to get lost.
However warm it is on the hike, the cave is nice and cool. And dark–don’t forget the headlamps, or you’ll be annoyed that you can’t explore the darkest recesses.
Lastly–bring a small garbage bag, and if you find any leftovers from local teenagers, help pack it out. Last time I was there it was clean, but it’s a cave… and if anyone appreciates a cave more than my super young boys, it’s the slightly-older teenage boys.