Lava Beds National Monument

Visited: Sept 2014

Nearby city: Tulelake, CA

This area of northeastern California is home to the basaltic lava fields from the eruptions of Medicine Lake Volcano, whose last major eruption was back in 1000 AD. This monument is similar to Craters of the Moon in Idaho, here you will find over 700 caves and lava formations such as lava tubes, fumaroles, cinder cones, spatter cones, and volcanic fields. 

We basically did a drive through of this Park. It was a very short stay. Our first stop was Petroglyph Point. We made a big mistake and thought the petroglyps were on top of the hill.  So we hiked up to the top of the hill (it took about half hour or so)...oops, the petroglyps aren't on top of the hill, they're on the bottom along the cliff face. 

good view from the top...but no petroglyphs

the petroglyphs were at the bottom of this cliff

here they are … not that impressive 😃

So, the hike wore us out a little bit and wasted our time. Therefore, we didn't do much here but drive through. This area has an interesting history, it was the site of the Modoc War of 1872-1873. When members of the Modoc Tribe refused to leave their lands in California and move to Klamath Reservation in southern Oregon, hostilities broke out between Modoc and white settlers. A group of about 150 Modoc, led by Kintpuash (known as "Captain Jack"), hid out in these lava fields and resisted the US Army. The hostilities led to the death of General Edward Canby, the only US general to be killed during the Indian Wars. There is a cross in the monument that marks the spot where he died.

   

Again, we we're short on time, so we only stopped at one of the lava tube caves, Skull Cave.

If you're going to hike through the caves you'll need to bring your own light source. There's a lot more to explore here...but we just didn't have enough time. If we do go back though, we'll make sure to skip the petroglyphs. 😁 More info here: https://www.nps.gov/labe/index.htm