Canadian Rockhound: The Horne Lake Caves

Horne Lake Caves - formations
Formations within the Horn Lake Caves.

In the summer of 1993, my wife Rose and I ran across Horne Lake Provincial Park near Qualicum Beach on the east coast of Vancouver Island. Intrigued, we took a short guided "family" tour of the Riverbend Cave. This involved hiking to the entrance, spending about half an hour underground in a large chamber near the entrance, scrambling over the uneven rocky floor, and observing and learning about the cave formations. Amongst the flow stone and bacon strips were several formations with hauntingly familiar shapes which had been given names like the "Howling Wolf" and the "Smiling Buddha". At the end of this room was a small tunnel connecting this chamber to others deeper in the cave system. The cave formations were amazing, but most of them were stained from oils and dirt from early visitors' hands.

We enjoyed the short family tour so much that we immediately made reservations to go on a longer adventure tour, and dragged our friend Ted with us. In a few short weeks we made our way back up to the park and met the rest of the group going with us. We were told by the tour operators that we were going to experience belly crawls, climbing, short repels, rope ladders, dampness and temperatures of about 5 degrees Celsius. We were excited and nervous. I have claustrophobic tendencies, and another person in our group was scared of heights. Rose was worried for other reasons, 5 1/2 hours without going to the bathroom! We were provided with helmets with lights and climbing harnesses. Most of us also brought waterproof jackets, hiking boots, gloves, extra lights, water and a lunch. Rose and I had the foresight to also include kneepads.

And the Riverbend Cave adventure began. The guide unlocked the grate, we climbed in, and he locked it solidly behind us. We quickly walked through the area of the first tour and came to the first of four belly crawls, each ranging from 10-15 feet long. The first three belly crawls were small and narrow, but relatively straight. This brought us to the siphon room, a small low chamber where we would have to wait for about 10 minutes while they pumped water out of the next tunnel. I guess I was looking very nervous at that point because our guide later told me that he was watching me carefully while we were waiting for the water to drain to see if he would have to bring me back out. During this wait the guide had us turn off our lights and experience total darkness. The last belly crawl was the worst for me because there was a right angle turn in it. My wife volunteered to go first to experience the feeling of first discovery. I went second last, making sure that nobody was in front of me when I entered, and our guide waited until I was through. This led into the first of many large chambers.

Caves 1

Caves 3

Caves 5

Views from within the Horne Lake Caves.

Around this time we were taught the basics of safely climbing up and down rocks, and basic repelling. We put on the climbing harnesses and repelled down a seventeen foot drop into a large chamber with many calcite formations. These formations were much cleaner than those by the cave entrance. Along our route we saw bacon strips, cave coral, flow stone, brain rock, soda straws, stalactites and stalagmites. I'm told soda straws are the fastest growing formation in the cave, growing at approximately 1 inch every 100 years. In addition, we saw crinoid stems embedded in the limestone wallrock.

Rainbarrel
Descending a cable ladder into a large chamber

We soon encountered another drop which had a 15 foot cable ladder which was needed to climb back out because the walls were so slick. Eventually we came to a chamber known as Achilles Pot Ledge, where we were able to crawl out on a ledge and observe a pit 50 feet deep lined with large formations which started at the ceiling 20 feet above. The end of our adventure tour was the top of the Rainbarrel, a huge chamber with a 75 foot drop. Using our climbing gear, some of us climbed down to the top edge of the drop to peer into this immense chamber. The cave system continued beyond this chamber, but at that time the tours did not go beyond this point. We reluctantly turned around and began our long climb out. Our entire adventure lasted about 5 1/2 hours.

We are told that there are over a thousand known caves on Vancouver Island. Horne Lake Caves Park contains six undeveloped caves, four of which are open to the public. Horne Lake Main Cave and Lower Cave are open all year round for self-guided tours. Unfortunately these self-exploration caves have been ransacked years ago so you won't see any cave formations in them. The Riverbend Cave is 200 vertical feet deep, and 1,200 feet of passages. It was preserved by being gated off in 1971, and is only accessible by guided tour. There is a strict rule against touching cave formations.

Please treat caves with respect!
Do not touch the formations, as they are fragile and unique. Help preserve our caves so others may enjoy their beauty.

Island Pacific Adventures Ltd. offers several types of guided cave tours from Mid June to Mid November. Reservations are recommended for the longer tours. They can be reached as follows:

Telephone: (250) 248-7829
Fax: (250) 339-9150
E-mail: adventure@hornelake.com
Website: www.hornelake.com
Address: P.O. Box 3531, Stn. Main, Courtenay, BC, V9N 6Z8

You can also contact Horne Lake Provincial Park. Their recorded information line is: (250) 757-8687.

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