We’ve been to a few caves on our travels with the most well known being Carlsbad Caverns. We also stumbled upon a really cool one in Arizona called Coronado. Lava Beds National Monument just south of the Oregon border is a whole area of lava caves. Eruptions over 30,000 years ago formed 900+ lava tube caves in the park. Around 24 are developed (stairs and somewhat of a trail through) and open to the public. Well, some are closed for bat hibernation right now.
We stopped by the visitor center to get a free cave permit; our annual National Park Pass got us in the monument but if you don’t have one, it’s $25 for a 7 day pass. With our headlights, and a flashlight, we first stopped in Mushpot Cave to get reacquainted with caving. The caves in this monument are rated Least Challenging, Moderately Challenging, and Most Challenging. Least challenging caves have higher ceilings and smoother floors. Moderately ranked caves require stopping and have rough floors and Most Challenging require some crawling and are directionally challenging.
Cave Loop Road is 3 miles and we ditched the car and just walked from the visitor center. I was surprised there wasn’t a path or trail or something, you just have to walk on the pavement. Our first and probably my favorite of the day, was Golden Dome Cave. This cave is 2,229′ long and rated moderately challenging. The golden ceiling in this and many other caves here is the result of light reflecting off water droplets that bead up on a coating of hydrophobic bacteria. The ceiling glows with a gold color and is pretty cool.
Other highlights were the Blue Grotto Cave which supposedly gets it’s name from the tint of the walls under certain light but I liked it for it’s skylights and interesting pathways. The Most Challenging Hopkins Chocolate Cave was also extraordinary. This one is named for the brown lavasicles and dripstone in the cave that resemble melting chocolate. E.L. Hopkins was an early explorer of Lava Beds before it was protected as Lava Beds National Monument. He is credited with being one of the first to explore Hopkins Chocolate.
We’ll head back another day to check out more caves. There is another ride we want to do here while the weather is nice. We plan to ride out to Captain Jack’s Stronghold so stay tuned. Oh, and add this place to your places to visit.
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