Lava Beds National Monument

     Lava Beds National Monument is one of my favorite places that our family visited.  At Lava Beds, many years ago, some volcanoes exploded and formed lava tubes.  These lava tubes are the caves that we visited at the National Monument.

     Before exploring a cave, there were some essential things we needed: flashlights (at least one per person), helmets (also one per person), and at least one more person to go with you (we had six in total).

This year, we visited a cave called Labyrinth.

Going down the ladder to the cave (Labyrinth).

This is the rest of my family (I am taking the picture) in the cave.

These are my siblings.

Although Labyrinth was marked "most challenging", most of the cave was spacious.  There was plenty of room, and we could stand straight.  Once in a while though, the ceiling would get a little low.  The lowest part of the cave was roughly about 18 inches tall.

Going down some steep stairs.

The end of the cave.

     We reached the end of the cave and climbed out.  The sign at the mouth of the cave read "Thunderbolt".  Thunderbolt was another cave we had planned on visiting, and we had heard that it connected to another cave.  So we decided to visit Lava Tubes Cave next.

     After some time in Lava Tubes Cave, there were two paths to choose.  It looked a lot like a section in Labyrinth.  We took the left road.  We ended up at Thunderbolt again!  At the end, we found out that all three caves (Thunderbolt, Labyrinth, Lava Tubes) were connected to each other.

     The next day, we visited some more caves: Indian well, Skull Cave, and others.

Going down into a cave.

Going down some stairs.

At Indian Well cave (if I remember correctly), we descended down a ladder. At the bottom, there was ice.

My siblings going down the ladder.

I don't remember the name of this cave.  We had to walk 0.4 miles in the scorching sun to get there and we walked another 0.4 miles back.  The cave wasn't big, and there was a pool of very cold water at the bottom.

     Caves made out of lava tubes are different from most caves.  Instead of icicles on the ceilings, there are lavacicles.  Instead of ice on the floor, there are a'a lava and pahoehoe lava.  Usually, there are dripstone on the walls of the caves.

It isn't very clear in this picture, but there are lavacicles on the ceiling. Also the patches of brown-black on the ceiling is the natural color of the lava, and often remind me of chocolate.

This is my mom coming out from a very low tunnel. The ground should be a'a lava.

     At Lava Beds, we also went to two tours, Hopkins Chocolate Cave, and Sunshine Cave.  We also did the Junior Ranger program.

This is the Junior Ranger Booklet.

This is the first page of the Junior Ranger Booklet.  When we finished the booklet, we also got a badge.

     We also visited many other caves, such as Hercules' Leg, Juniper, and Catacombs Cave.  We had a fun and challenging time at Lava Beds National Monument!