Lava Beds

Lava Beds National Monument.

It’s a place that we have driven by several times and every time I have said, “I’d like to go there some day”. So this time we decided to check it out. It is located in northern California just west of Hwy 95 about 10 miles south of the Oregon border. There are two entrances, north and south, but by all means use the northern one, for the first seven miles of the fifteen mile southern entrance road is almost impassible due to pot holes caused by frost heaves. Between an extremely bumpy surface and driving to avoid the holes, your speed averages about 15 mph. It gets some better for the rest of the forest service road and then smoothes out once you reach the monument boundary.

As you might guest from the name the park is located on a site of volcanic activity. Shield volcanoes ooze lava rather gently (if you can say that about molten material). The park has numerous small peaks all of which were vents for oozing the hot stuff. As the lava flowed and cooled, flowed and cooled, it left the landscape with almost impassible topography. The area is littered with piles of lava and tubes where the molten lava flowed through the “cooler” lava. These tubes are now caves that populate the area. A sign in the visitor center states that there are 746 caves that have been discovered in the monument, but not all are open to the public for safety reasons. However, many, about 25, are open to visitors. All you need is a flashlight, safe shoes, and warm clothing to go into them. Hard hats would also be a good idea too if you have them. I would probably wear my bike helmet to protect my noggin. Large flashlights are available at the visitor center because caves are DARK. (go figure). The visitor center is open set hours, but the caves have no hours. The loop road that travels to the majority of the established ones closes from 5pm to 8am to vehicles, but not to hikers or bikers. . Also there are a couple of caves that are right next to the visitor center so you don’t have to travel at all to go underground.

We spent the night in the park campground which has about 40 sites. No hook ups are available but flush toilets and water is on site. There are several campsites that are large enough to accommodate larger rigs like ours. Even though we were coming in a Saturday the campground was less then half full. It would be a great place to spend a few days relaxing and exploring a few of the caves.

Driving out the north entrance road, you pass several pullouts with opportunities to explore additional geologic and historic features. One of these stops is named Captain Jack’s Stronghold. During an episode called the “Modoc War” in the 1870’s a small band of Modoc people held out against the US Army for 5-6 months here. In walking the informative trail through this area, it is obvious that this is a fortress. The caves and gullies and jumbled lava rocks make this place useless for vehicles or horses and so large armies would have been reduced to individuals. This was the Modoc’s land and they knew this place well. Under the leadership of Captain Jack a small group of warriors and their families gave the military a lot of problems.