Lava Beds National Monument

Location, Tionesta, CA

What a great day!!!!! I was up past midnight last night checking email and doing the blog so we slept in this morning until 8:30. Wow! That never happens.

We finally packed a picnic lunch and headed to Lava Beds National Monument by way of Tule Lake. I had forgotten to fill the extra fuel cans before we left Carson City so a fuel stop was in order. Diesel was $2.92 per at a small local market.

The weather has been cloudy with short thunderstorms but today more severe weather with hail was predicted. We hope it will be somewhere else instead of here. We drove to the monument, stopping at turn outs, reading the kiosk info and taking a few photos. We eventually reached the visitor center and checked in with our Golden Age Pass. There are lots of caves near the visitor center which were caused by lava flowing and as it cooled a tube formed.

The nearest tube to the visitor center is called Mushpot and has metal steps going down 20 feet to a cement walkway which is lighted by red rope lights. Very cool! In places the ceiling is low and hard hats are recommended as well as a big flash light. We followed the path to the end, took a few photos and returned to the entrance. Oh yes, it gets very chilly as you descend down the tube. In many caves here there is ice year round.



We walked to the next tube called Indian Cave which had steps made with the lava rock. I walked down but Clyda didn’t want to do all the steps so we turned back. About that time it started raining so we hurried back to the visitor center a little wet.


We drove to the campground and had our lunch sitting in the truck.

We drove out a different way and stopped at a petroglyph site which at one time was surrounded by water and only reached by boat. While driving we watched a thunderstorm over Klamath Falls which dumped a lot of rain and hail. It soon moved out of the area. We did get some pictures of the rain storms as they passed over the valley.



We drove back to Tule Lake for a soft ice cream before driving back to the camp ground.

For the next few days we will be without internet as we will be staying at Collier State Park north of Chiloquin, OR.