Lava Beds National Monument
Lava Beds National Monument sits in the far North of California only 15 miles from the Oregon border and an hour from Klamath Falls. The feel of the place is actually very similar to a National Park just smaller and more isolated. Despite being in the middle of nowhere, the facilities are very nice with a Visitor Center and campground. The numerous caves in the area are lava tubes created by the Medicine Lake shield volcano. Lava tubes were created when lava flowed through the area and began to cool. As most of the lava hardened into rock, underground rivers of lava were formed. Once the lava stopped flowing from the volcano, it emptied from these tubes creating underground passages.
Most of the accessible caves are on cave loop road which is right by the Visitor Center. Even though the caves along the cave loop are in close proximity to each other, there is still a large variety of caves from small caves with beautiful formations to large caves with vast rooms.
While most caves that you can visit elsewhere, you must go on an organized tour, in Lava Beds you can explore on your own which makes this an awesome adventure.
A few of the caves are periodically closed if bats are spotted so be prepared as 5 or so caves are typically closed.
What to Bring
As most of the caves are unlit, be sure to bring multiple flashlights or lanterns so you don’t run the risk of losing one or having dead batteries leave you in the dark.
You can get an extensive guide of most of the caves and how challenging they are here. Below I will list some of the ones I did and give a more detailed description
The Caves
Mushpot Cave
- Sitting right by the Visitor Center, this cave is the easiest to access and is the only one that is thoroughly lit making it very visitor friendly. There is a short paved interpretive trail to the mouth of the cave and then lighted exhibits inside to help understand how the caves were formed and the ecosystem that exists within. This cave is pretty short and the ceiling drops somewhat low causing me (at 6’4”) to stoop but is very friendly to kids.
Golden Dome Cave
- Golden Dome is a very beautiful cave with bacterial mats on the ceiling creating beautiful colors. This was probably my favorite cave as the gold/yellow colors of the ceiling are surprisingly bright. The underground world isn’t as dull as you might suspect.
Hopkins Chocolate
- This was the only “most challenging” cave that I did which means you are on all fours most of the time. The roof in these caves varies and goes up and down so I had plenty of room to turn around and even stand up in some portions, though some parts were cramped
- This cave was really interesting though and had some beautiful formations. The roof of the cave really does look like chocolate! Blue Grotto
- Unfortunately this cave was closed when I visited due to bat activity but I do wish I could’ve gone in it. There were some blue formations in Golden Dome cave which was very beautiful so I got to enjoy some of what I’m sure it had to offer.
Sunshine Cave
- This cave is pretty mild and is good if you don’t want to be crawling in pitch dark as there are some spots where light comes through. This gives a neat vibe with some plants growing in the cave which is different from some of the other caves. Beyond that it isn’t very interesting but being in the cave loop, it’s easy access makes it a worthwhile stop.
Sentinel Cave
- This cave is very easy to walk through (some walking over rocks) with no crawling. Some of the rooms here are absolutely huge which is super cool! One interesting feature is that you can really see different lava tubes intersecting at different heights. It’s fascinating to see how these tubes work and how they formed while lava was flowing through. This hike is a loop, having two entrances, which is nice in that you don’t have to do any backtracking. Sentinel Cave is the 2nd longest cave on cave loop road behind the challenging Labyrinth Cave. It doesn’t have the beautiful colors of some of the other caves but it makes up for that in size. Some of the rooms are absolutely enormous! Overall I really enjoyed this cave and it is certainly worth doing.
Skull Cave
- Skull Cave is not on the cave loop road but on Lyons Road just a few minutes from the Visitor Center. This cave is one of the few ice caves in the area where ice at the bottom of the cave will stay frozen year-round. It’s pretty interesting seeing ice at the bottom of the cave even in the midst of summer. This cave was disappointing in that the ice floor is completely barred off in order to preserve the clarity of the ice. However, there was some ice outside the bars so I was able to see some ice providing some payoff for the hike. This cave is interesting in that the entrance is absolutely huge and then the trail leads pretty far back into the cave. The cave then goes deeper until there is a chamber back under itself. The large entrance and the depth of the cave is how the cave stays cool enough to allow ice to form. If I went back, I would probably skip this cave and try to visit another ice cave like Jot Dean Ice Cave South of the monument.
Fern Cave and Crystal Ice Cave
- There are two caves that do require tours in Lava Beds. Fern Cave and Crystal Ice Cave both can only be visited on a tour and the tours are only offered select days. Both of these caves have stunning beauty but require advanced planning as the tours are very infrequent and very popular. Fern Cave has beautiful ferns and ancient pictographs while Crystal Ice Cave is a challenging cave with a very long tour and spectacular ice formations. Both are unique in these respects and worth visiting if you have the chance.
