Golden Gate Cave Hike and fire

Golden Gate Cave is a small cave that someone

 carved into the mountain apparently many years ago.

I have never heard of it before Jeff suggested that we 

hike up to it.

There is a slide on the side of the hill 

made of a limestone base. I have seen it 

aa through the years but never hiked up to it.

Alex loves climbing on it and sliding down it.

Here is part of the trail, you can see 

Marie and Brittany just coming around the bend.

Jeff and Kate were trying to figure out where the 

trail to the cave opening was located.

The cave is up there, somewhere.

Kate and I started up the trail, 

but it was really steep and she went back down. 

This is the opening to the cave.

There is a plaque explaining how it was named.

This is an image from the end of the cave. 

It is only about thirty feet deep.

As we were leaving the cave 

there was smoke starting to come up

on the hill next to us.

The girls waited for us on the trail below 

the cave.

A fire engine headed to the fire site.

Jeff and I wanted to see around 

the next bend.

We still couldn't really see it even after 

we had gone around the bend.

There was an officer back on the limestone

slide yelling at us to come down so we turned

around and went on down. There was a possibility 

of the fire getting near us but it would have taken a 

strong wind to get embers across the cut in the 

hill separating us from the fire.

We basically ran back down from the limestone area.

Another runner was up there as well and so we took her

back over to her car by the Y trail. 

She couldn't run back since the fire was now 

blocking the trail along where she had come and 

would need to return.

A lot of traffic stopped to see the fire.

We could see it fairly well from Jeff and Britt's yard.

It was a fun hike with a unique end.