After flying from Madras to Klamath falls right after the total solar eclipse was over, we picked up a rental car waiting for us, and arrived at Lava Beds a mere 3h after having left Madras, while most everyone was probably still trying ot get out of the traffic jams. As a result the park was pretty much empty all afternoon, so we had a good 6H of visiting time until we watched sunset and went back to our campsite for the night.
Lava Beds NP is full of caves and lava tubes
The rangers in the visitor center were quite helpful at suggesting extra places to visit, and we started by doing a few caves on Cave Loop:
caves were dark, even when some light came in, this is without firesword
and lit with firesword, 4000 lumens
actually I had 2 fireswords, one set on low (1000 lumens), and one set on high (4000 lumens)
some lava tubes were quite big
sometimes the cave split up, more than once even
at times, it really looked like a tube
other times, it was triangular
Nice ceiling formations:
Some caves required a bit of hiking:
We then did a hike to and around Mammoth Crater. It wasn't the best lighting, but still nice crater to hike around:
path around the crater
We still had a bit of time, so we went to check out skull cave. a huge cave opening with ice at the bottom floor:
it was quite hot outside, and yet cool enough for ice at the bottom
We used to the rest of the time to hike up Schonchin Butte Cinder Cone for sunset views, an easy 25mn hike up:
nice plaques explaining the views
We then went back to our campsite for dinner and stargazing:
we had a nice roomy tent
We started the 2nd day with what we should have done the first day: the beginner intro mushpot cave, all lit up and full of signs, including an interpretative walk, there:
Next, we went to check out Valentine Cave, a pretty huge and interesting cave:
the roof got low eventually, Jennifer went to check it out (my light)
that was Jennifer coming back with only her light on
We then hiked to symbol bridge and big painted cave, which had indian cave pictographs:
I found a hole at the end of the cave and was able to descend to a smaller cave with ice
Jennifer was a bit worried, the path in looked like it could collapse, but she came to check it out too
more ice
the pictographs by the entrance were hard to find, but Jennifer found them
By then, we were pretty much done, so on the way out, we stopped by the Black Crater lava flow:
One the way back to Klamath Falls, we stopped by Captains Jacks Stronghold, where he basically fought and chased off the native americans who were happily there. To be honest, the trail wasn't that interesting or really worth the time:
the native americans lived in small cool caves like this one
the battle was fought here apparently
Lava Beds National Park was actually very nice. I had never heard about it, and that was a mistake. Thanks go to Arturo for recommending the place, we got to see more lava tubes than we had seen anywhere, including Hawaii. The only thing Hawaii has that Lava Beds doesn't, is fresh lava, and freshly cooled lava. Apart from that, this national park has a great variety of things to see and learn from.
