2012/05 Western USA trip - Lava Beds |
|||||
Thursday May 24th
We hoped to get into California and some warmer weather. Our destination was the Lava Beds national monument, famous for its numerous caves. This park was open year-round, so we’d get to see our lava this time. Our route was quite scenic, around Klamath Lake, with a stop in Klamath Falls for some shopping.
We stopped for lunch at the Tule Lake wildlife area, a green spot on a barren looking lake, below lava cliffs. Birds clearly loved the place 
with terns and gulls and herons close by and squadrons of pelicans on the horizon.
When we arrived at the Lave Beds there was a sign warning us that we had to be vetted for white nose syndrome before entering any caves. At the visitor centre it was explained that the syndrome is wiping out bat populations in eastern North America. European bats are immune, so there is a possibility that cavers accidentally carried it to the USA from Europe. After we’d given our recent caving history we were proclaimed “white nose free” and given a certificate of health.
We set off to explore a few of the hundreds of lava tube caves. None of us felt like crawling through tunnels so we picked some easy ones. The Mushpit Cave has lights along a well-defined trail, a cave for beginners.
After that we blundered around the Indian Wells Cave using our own lights and then Sandie and I climbed down a series of steps and ladders 
to the bottom of Skull Cave. Rainwater freezes down there in the winter and stays frozen in the deep cave. Visitors used to be able to walk across the ice floor but it’s now fenced off.
There’s no surface water in the Lava Beds, so the water in the caves is important to animals and humans. It was a big factor in the Modoc War when Captain Jack and his Indian band held off the US Army for two years. The war did not end well for either side. I took a walk through Captain Jack’s
stronghold, a contorted trail through convoluted canyons of lava and every corner looked to be the perfect spot for an ambush. There were warnings about beginning the trail with plenty of water and sunscreen, but I was in no danger of overheating as a sleet storm came through 
as I started back. I was lucky to have some distinctive scenery to navigate by as I’d soon lost the trail.
The hilltops around us were dusted with snow by the time I got back, so none of us were keen on any further walking and we hunkered down in the campground watching the rain and sleet. There was much discussion between John, who’d wanted to come in May, and Edna, who’d wanted to wait until June. There’s no easy answer; they’d probably have missed the snow, but a lot of other places can be much too hot later in the year.