Lava Beds National Monument

Tamara Lopez and myself explored a wide variety of volcanic features contained within Lava Beds National Monument on July 7th. The monument, located just south of Klamath Falls and the Oregon/California border, is probably best known for its lava tubes and caves, which visitors can explore without much restriction. The most difficult caves, rated as "black diamonds" by the park, occasionally require crawling on hands and knees in order to move from one chamber to another. After partaking in a few crawls, I would recommend anyone contemplating an exploration of the more difficult caves to bring knee pads, elbow pads, gloves, and even a hard hat (not to mention light sources). The best cave for exploration in my opinion is "Catacomb Cave," which features over a mile of tubes to explore at different vertical levels. A map of the Catacomb cave system is recommended, as I can attest to almost getting lost while exploring. In addition, once you reach a point deep inside the cave, turn off your headlamps for a couple of minutes and soak in complete sensory deprivation...it is pretty awesome! After exploring the lave caves below ground, and lava fountains and cinder cones above ground, we concluded the trip by viewing ancient petroglyphs that were etched into what was once a rock island surrounded by a shallow prehistoric lake.