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The Upana Caves are fully open to the public and among the most accessible caves on Vancouver Island. And is managed by the B.C. Government. Upana caves are located 15km from Gold River along the Head Bay Forest Service road towards Tahsis.
Upana Caves has a small parking lot. To access the caves, take the short, marked trail just across the logging road bridge.
There are several caves to explore, each with easily accessible entrances. Some are very quick to enter and exit, while others go a lot deeper. As you venture further inside, it becomes darker and the passages narrower, requiring you to crouch and even crawl at times.
Basic map kiosks are located at the mouth of each cave, but there is no signage once in the caves, so exploring is your only option. Plan to get a little dirty, watch your head and bring a flashlight.
Other notable caves to visit include Horne Lake Caves, which offer guided tours, and Little Huson Cave, known for its impressive, large land bridge located on North Vancouver Island.
THE UPANA CAVE SYSTEM
The Upana Caves system consists of at least six named caves, many with interconnected passages. Individual caves vary in size from single chambers to passages of more substantial length. The cave system has about 15 known entrances, and the combined length of all caves is in the region of 500 m.
The caves and karst features at Upana started to form many thousands, possibly millions, of years ago. Many of their present-day characteristics have been shaped by the effects of Pleistocene era glaciation (the period of the Ice Age, with woolly mammoths and sabre-toothed cats) and erosion processes in more recent geological times.
Remains of glacial sediments can still be seen in parts of the cave system, and the wearing down of passages by stream erosion continues to this day in the lowest regions.
INSECT CAVE
Estimated duration 2-5 minutes – You can enter this cave with a single chamber, but watch your footing! Look for cave crickets and harvestmen. They spend part of their life cycle underground.
MAIN CAVE
Estimated duration 20-30 minutes – Pass through the natural tunnel (the “Keyhole”) near the bench and head left toward the stone stairs leading to the interior of this, the most extensive cave of the system.
From the bottom of the stone stairs, you can explore several passages. The suggested route will lead you to the sinking point of the Upana River.
From here, the river follows a submerged underground course before reappearing inside the Resurgence Cave. Return through the cave and the Keyhole to the main trail.
CORNER-SLITHER CAVE
Estimated duration 15-20 minutes – More adventurous and well-prepared visitors will find this cave fun to explore. Walk into the cave for a short distance until you reach a short drop where the passage turns under itself.
You can eventually pass through a tight place in the lower passage, which connects to other passages and entrances.
Be prepared to get “down and dirty” here. Return through the cave to rejoin the main trail.
RESURGENCE CAVE
Estimated duration 20 minutes – This cave was formed by the Upana River, which still flows through it. The staircase will lead you to the inside of the cave past the 10-m high entrance.
Those smooth white rocks you see along the river are marble-limestone transformed by heat and pressure.
Keep an eye out for fish in the river and the birds which nest permanently inside the entrance.
Follow the river upstream inside the cave for a short distance, but watch your footing. A looping secondary passage with smooth and scalloped walls leaves and re-enters on your left.
The Upana River can be followed upstream to a deep pool some 20m behind the dyke (an igneous rock intrusion into the limestone) that nearly crosses the entire passage.
A large piece of this dyke fell naturally in the 1990s. Return to the entrance and the stairs.
THE KARST LANDSCAPE
The network of caves and other distinctive landform features at Upana Caves make up karst – a landscape formed chiefly by the chemical dissolution of the soluble bedrock by acidic water. The soluble rocks at Upana Caves are limestone and marble. Marble is limestone transformed by heat and pressure.
The sediments that make up the Upana Caves limestone are mostly shells of marine organisms. As these sediments accumulated in warm tropical seas, the region of the earth’s crust on which they rested – called a terrane – was slowly moving by plate tectonic processes towards the ancient coast of North America.
When the terrain collided with the North American continent, parts of it were squeezed, folded and pushed up to form large parts of what we now know as Vancouver Island.
The forces of uplifting, tilting, folding and faulting that raised Vancouver Island’s limestone above sea level also fractured the rock and created the pathways needed for water to exploit and dissolve the bedrock.
The distinguishing feature of any karst landscape is its subterranean drainage system, which develops when water dissolves and enlarges cracks, fractures and joints in soluble bedrock.
Rainwater absorbs some carbon dioxide (CO2) as it falls through the atmosphere to form weak carbonic acid and picks up much more CO2 when it infiltrates the forest floor and percolates through the soil.
How to get there
From Gold River, drive west toward Tahsis. Turn onto Head Bay Forest Service Road (gravel) and continue for about 14.5 km. Turn right onto Branch H-27 and park on the right side just before the bridge. The trailhead is on the other side of the bridge. Expect the drive to take roughly 25 minutes from Gold River. Google Maps
On your way back, consider stopping at the Cala Creek pullout to check out the waterfalls.
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