United States Cave
Paradise Ice Caves
-4 °C inside, all year.
Stereo by H.L. Toles View Co. · Public domain
The descent
The entrance, at 2,474 m.
The real relief above Paradise Ice Caves, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
2,474m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
-4°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
468m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
-4 °C inside, all year.
Cold winter air sinks into the cave and stays trapped: the ice lasts all year, even when it is hot outside. In August the afternoon reaches 11 °C at the entrance, 15 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- -8°-13°Jan
- -8°-14°Feb
- -6°-12°Mar
- -2°-10°Apr
- 3°-6°May
- 6°-4°Jun
- 10°-1°Jul
- 11°-1°Aug
- 8°-3°Sep
- 1°-7°Oct
- -5°-11°Nov
- -9°-14°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Glacier caves in Washington, United States
Paradise Ice Caves is a cave in United States. The entrance is at 2,474 m. It has ice all year and the shape of a lava tube.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 2.0 km from the entrance
- Tacoma Narrows Airport (TIW)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 82 km in a straight lineCar hire at SEA airport (Seattle)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 3springs within 2 km
- 3viewpoints within 3 kmGlacier Vista, Panorama Point
- 2marked hiking routes within 3 kmSkyline Trail, Panorama Point Trail
- 2climbing crags within 3 kmMount Rainier
- 10named waterfalls within 4 kmTato Falls, Wilson Glacier Falls, Myrtle Falls and 7 more
- 2information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 14campsites within 8 kmCamp Muir, Snow Lake Camp, Camp Hazard and 11 more
- 2hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmParadise Inn, National Park Inn
- other cave entrances within 3 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- car parks within 2 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
In our other atlases
What else is around Paradise Ice Caves.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Cascadyas7 waterfalls within 5 km
Peakyas49 mountains within 10 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | -8 | -8 | -6 | -2 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 11 | 8 | 1 | -5 | -9 |
| Afternoon | -8 | -8 | -6 | -2 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 11 | 8 | 1 | -5 | -9 |
| Night | -13 | -14 | -12 | -10 | -6 | -4 | -1 | -1 | -3 | -7 | -11 | -14 |
| Rain (mm) | 235 | 154 | 180 | 122 | 93 | 69 | 21 | 32 | 68 | 159 | 233 | 231 |
| Rainy days | 21 | 18 | 21 | 20 | 16 | 14 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 16 | 21 | 21 |
| Sun hours/day | 2.4 | 4.3 | 4.9 | 6.8 | 8.1 | 9.3 | 11.8 | 10.3 | 7.9 | 5.1 | 2.7 | 1.9 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 26 | 26 | 20 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 22 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | -8 | -8 | -13 | 235 | 2.4 |
| Feb | -8 | -8 | -14 | 154 | 4.3 |
| Mar | -6 | -6 | -12 | 180 | 4.9 |
| Apr | -2 | -2 | -10 | 122 | 6.8 |
| May | 3 | 3 | -6 | 93 | 8.1 |
| Jun | 6 | 6 | -4 | 69 | 9.3 |
| Jul | 10 | 10 | -1 | 21 | 11.8 |
| Aug | 11 | 11 | -1 | 32 | 10.3 |
| Sep | 8 | 8 | -3 | 68 | 7.9 |
| Oct | 1 | 1 | -7 | 159 | 5.1 |
| Nov | -5 | -5 | -11 | 233 | 2.7 |
| Dec | -9 | -9 | -14 | 231 | 1.9 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (2,474 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 167% | 166% | 72% | 56% | 152% | 161% | 88% | 49% | 143% | 106% | 112% | 93% |
| 2021 | 103% | 171% | 53% | 34% | 77% | 108% | 22% | 41% | 155% | 113% | 151% | 112% |
| 2022 | 116% | 102% | 69% | 137% | 182% | 187% | 80% | 25% | 11% | 64% | 102% | 100% |
| 2023 | 50% | 89% | 71% | 130% | 54% | 72% | 38% | 107% | 123% | 58% | 86% | 123% |
| 2024 | 123% | 101% | 66% | 85% | 108% | 152% | 85% | 154% | 64% | 87% | 98% | 116% |
| 2025 | 36% | 113% | 120% | 68% | 73% | 44% | 140% | 198% | 76% | 110% | 92% | 194% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Paradise Ice Caves
United States
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 2,474 mEntrance altitude
- -4 °CInside, all year
Lava River Cave
United States · 326 km
- —Depth
- 1.6 kmGalleries
- 1,372 mEntrance altitude
- 7 °CInside, all year
Horne Lake Caves Provincial Park
Canada · 360 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 164 mEntrance altitude
- 10 °CInside, all year
Sea Lion Caves
United States · 354 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 51 mEntrance altitude
- 11 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q7134289) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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