Lava Beds National Monument

Captain Jack’s Stronghold — great short hike of half mile and a longer two mile (total) hike to explore the lava tube crevasses that the Modocs used to hold off the US cavalry. The trail guide is essential to understanding the landscape you’re walking through. As you walk the trail, which goes past quite a few collapsed lava tubes, you get a real sense of the drama played out here as well as the geology.
Restroom and large parking lot at the stronghold.
The monument has lots of lava caves in the park, easy ones and more challenging, crawly ones. Some, including the easy Skull Cave, have ice at the bottom. The caves are the more popular attraction here so be prepared for people and noisy kids if you go during peak season. Also be prepared to answer questions about your recent cave experience — like all parks with bats, they’re trying to control white-​nose syndrome. Help out by being truthful.
The visitor center is at the south end of the park, but I think most people come in from the north through the park access kiosk. The south entrance road is not as good as the northern ones.

Driving to Lava beds seemed spooky as the drive towards to camp ground is dead quiet. The campground is very beautiful and peaceful. I would recommend anyone to stay here that is looking for a quiet time away.

Once a week in the first few months of the year, Lava Beds National Park provides a free 3-​hour guided tour through one of the most spectacular ice caves I’ve ever seen. Although it was my first experience through a cave, I was told that this cave is one of the best. I felt privileged to be given the opportunity to tour through this natural cave. They only allow 6 people every week to reduce melting of the ice formations from body heat. The tour starts at 1pm at the visitor center where they give you a little background of the cave and screen you for white-​nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease that affects bats. They also provide you with helmets, headlamps and knee pads if you don’t have any of your own. The fee for park entry is $ 15 per car, which I believe is such a small price to pay for the experience.
We had awesome tour guides, Erin and Jeanette, who seemed to know a great deal about the history and geology of the cave. They were able to expertly guide us in and out without any issues. Happy to report that no one was injured despite some of the unstable rocks we had to walk over. I think the most impressive ice formation was one called «the waterfall». I posted pictures of it in this review.
The 3 hours went by really quickly and I learned so much about this ice cave during our visit. I would highly recommend visiting it if you get the chance, especially if you live up in Northern California. Just make sure to make a reservation in advanced by calling ahead. All the info can be found through this site:
YAY for ice caves!

Captain Jack’s stronghold is a must visit. Two historical loop trails that go around the area, fascinating. Be sure and pick up the little brochure at the entrance of the trail.

Lava beds is a wonderful landmark. The sheer magnitude of the lava, and its impenetrable rock, is an incredible reminder of the true awesome power of Mother Nature. If a lava flow is coming, there’s nothing you can do but get out of the way. Absolutely nothing. So I look and all this rock and as it slowly turns into over I’m sure thousands and thousands of years a place where plants can grow again the adaptability of Mother Nature his incredible. I stand in awe at the transformation from rock to growth that has occurred here.

This place was amazing!!! We pulled up & it was hot in the campground but once u get in the caves it’s way cool & felt great! The tunnels were way bigger then we thought, there was around 15 of them to explore on ur own!!! Easy to find

got there little after lunch with kids eager to get their junior ranger badges and go caving. had a ranger who basically had them doing their booklets until they closed at 6pm. i am pissed. in my mind the junior ranger program is about:
1. teaching the kids about the park
2. having it be a positive experience so that when we actually get to the caves. it enriches their experience…
instead. we got.
1. a ranger who didn’t bother to read that a kid was 7 and expected her to write a poem
2. turned away the kids several times because of some wrong answers (most other rangers i have seen would have applauded the effort and used it as a teachable moment)
and now after 30 or so national parks we have a couple de-​motivated kids who are no longer interested in the national parks. my experience may be unique to this ranger. and is the first after all the parks we have been through. but regardless this park sucks.

Our first stop was the visitor center where we asked the ranger for a map of the area and cave information. All the caves are self-​guided and you are free to roam. The info sheet has all the caves listed and categorized into least challenging, moderately challenging and most challenging. Then it has listed the length of the cave, if you can walk upright inside, if the caves has stairs, a path, if you have to crawl, etc.
The ranger pointed out Mushpot Cave because it is the closest to the center and also lit with rope lighting on a paved path. It is definitely a good starter cave if you haven’t done this before.
You should definitely bring flashlights although they can be rented for free from the visitor center. I think they just require you to leave your license. 3 out of 4 people in our group had headlamps, but I wish I had rented a flashlight because I was without the headlamp. It is best to have 1 flashlight per person.

Lava Beds is a national monument located near the border between California and Oregon. In the area, there are many caves made from lava. It was really interesting.
Caving was really interesting. Some caves were high enough to walk normally, but some were only knee high, so we crawled a lot. Also the lava formed really sharp formations, so a helmet and knee pads were necessary. Some caves were really cold, and there was ice in the deep areas. It was the first time that I was really glad to see sunlight after crawling for 4 hours in the dark.
The land is very plain and wide open, so I was able to see the horizon.

Lava Beds National Monument is located in northeastern California. Because of the remote location it isn’t crowed. The day we went they were have the yearly reenactment of the Modoc wars, despite the bus loads of school children learning about this history, the park was very quiet.
I found the barren landscape beautiful. I could almost see Captain Jack, a Modoc leader, and the cavalry in the landscape. I did explore one cave, I would have liked to explore more, but I had a mishap a few days before I came here to explore and wasn’t able to enjoy as many caves, tubes, and hikes I would have normally have. Oh well, I know I will be back I love the Tulelake Wildlife Refuge, and this park is nearby.
There is a modern visitor’s center with displays and a small gift shop. There aren’t any food concessions, I would advise bringing water and food with you. I think there are campsites nearby.
It is a bit of journey to come to this park, but it’s worth exploring. If you are spelunker, a birder or a photographer you will love this remote section of California!

Came here on a recent road trip and had the greatest time with my two buddies. We thought it was just going to be lava beds so nothing but blackened rock everywhere. But oh how we were pleasantly wrong. We drove over to the visitors center to figure out which caves were best (skull, valentine, golden dome) and rent some gear (not the greatest but they work). We’d Never been spelunking before but thoroughly enjoyed our experience. So if we’re ever caught in the middle of nowhere again we’ll be sure to head back.
There were a couple of closed down caves because of nesting bats. Supposedly humans in the caves can spread diseases to the bats that are slowly killing them off…

When we were planning our road trip, I didn’t understand why my BF was so excited about the Lava Beds National Monument. A bunch of scrub and blackened rocks, BIG DEAL. But now I’m an enthusiastic convert! You don’t have to be a spelunking nut to enjoy the unique landscape, accessible lava-​tube caves, and scenic drives.
We only had a couple of hours to spend here, so we asked the ranger on our way in to point out the must-​see caves for visitors who weren’t equipped for serious hiking. She pointed out Skull Cave (the one with the ice floor), Mushpot Cave (the best-​lit and most informative one), and Valentine Cave (big, empty, and spooooky) as good spots to try, which would also take us on a loop through the park and out the other entrance.
You should definitely bring flashlights (they can be rented from the visitor center), and a sweater or jacket for inside the caves — once you descend underground, it gets really cold really fast (hence the perma-​ice floor)! Skull Cave, in particular, has a ton of terrifying metal stairs in pitch blackness, but it’s worth the scary climb.
We stopped in at the visitor center, which has some interpretive displays and native artifacts, and a few educational gifts and souvenirs, plus hiking supplies and poo bags, which is how you go to the bathroom in a cave. The provided map is easy to follow and you’ll get some pretty great views of Devil’s Homestead and the blackened, seemingly barren landscape as you drive.
I was SUPER bummed that we didn’t get to go see the glyphs, but time didn’t permit it, so be sure to allow adequate time to see the things you want to see here. The lava beds are surprisingly interesting and picturesque, and the caves were really cool, even for someone like me who had never been previously interested in crawling around in a cave. If your travels take you anywhere near here, stop in for a visit, even if only for a couple of hours!

So happy we took a detour here on our most recent road trip. It’s a little out of the way from just about everything, but totally worth it. A lot of caves are easily accessible and relatively easy to hike through. They’re nice and cool even on a hot day. The people at the visitor’s center were super helpful and informative and helped us figure out how to best spend our half day at the park. I can’t wait to find an excuse to go back. Out of all the places I’ve visited on road trips, this has been one of my favorite finds (caveat: I’m a huge geo-​nerd).

My wife and I loved it here. we were staying in Mount Shasta and figured we would give it a shot. we drove for 1.5 hours and it was well worth the drive. the rangers were super delightfull. I had bought some mag lights for the trip but I should have brought some gloves and a hard hat. I only hit my head like 3 times but that’s probly due to the fact I was taking a selfie or two. favorite cave was skull cave, wish we could have expolored more but the bats had taken up residence in some of the caves, no worries though, we plan on coming back in spring. you can tell they put every dollar to good use at this park, not run down at all, and fantastic paved paths and scaffolding built to access the caves. I say that anyone can come here and enjoy this park.

For once my kids didn’t whine about hiking with us.
I guess it takes exploring a cave (or a whole bunch) to get them interested in walking. There are quite a number of lava caves to explore in Lava Beds. We ended up visiting four. Several of the caves were closed because of nesting bats. Bat babies need their sleep!
We started our day with a hike up the only cinder cone open to the public (there are a number of them dotted throughout the park) Schonchin Butte. Yes, my kids whined a bit. We had to carry the 3 year old up much of it. But the whining was minimal as it was earlier in the morning and our first excursion. The view from the top is awesome. You’ll see many interesting formations including Mt. Shasta off in the distance.
Our next stop was the Visitor Center and some recommendations for the kids. We didn’t want to do anything too scary with them. That is when we learned of the cave closures due to the bats. We visited Golden Dome, Sunshine, Sentinel, and Skull Cave.
Since the kids are much shorter than we are, they actually did better in the more claustrophobic caves (lol). Golden Dome narrows down and appears to continue for quite a ways. We only partially went down into it. Watch out for the low ceilings here and rough footing. I gave myself a hard knock on the head because I was focusing too much on what was below my feet. And I’m barely over 5 feet tall. Would recommend a helmet with this cave. Sunshine was my favorite cave. It had a couple of areas with holes in the ceiling that let the sun in. Very pretty. The Sentinel is cool because you can hike from one cave entrance to the other (hike is not long at all). Kids loved that one. Skull cave descends pretty deep within the earth. It gets really cold down there so bring a jacket (although we didn’t and we lived to tell the tale). My son was disappointed in this one because they blocked off the cavern down at the bottom of the cave to protect the year around ice formation. It used to be open to the public. My husband visited Lava Beds many years ago and was able to explore this cave.
We didn’t have time to do anything else. I would definitely return to visit more caves, explore the park a bit more.

Worth a visit!
This visit was totally not what we expected… it was too much fun for our kids! While my husband and I tried to keep up with our two daughters we found the self tour bizarrely different and adventurous! We headed straight to the Visitor Center and inquired about which caves would be appropriate for the girls (ages 16 and 12), the ranger suggested many of the least challenging caves beginning with the Mushpot as an introductory cave. The cave is lighted but it is still recommended to bring extra light. The visitor center also provided free flashlights to borrow. We headed for the Mushpot Cave (approx 770 ft)… but after this the girls wanted to check out the caves nearby, which was Labyrinth and Lava Brook Caves. They thoroughly enjoyed these two caves. We experienced having to crawl, duck (because of the low ceiling heights throughout), and really pay attention to our footing. We also explored the Catacombs Cave. This seemed to be a very long cave. Seemed easy at first but found out that we could get easily lost and increased in difficulty as we went deeper inside. Later, we found out that these caves that we just explored were among the most challenging ones! We also explored The Golden Dome and the Sentinel Cave, beginning from the Upper Entrance and exiting at the Lower Entrance.
Before the adventures in the caves we stopped at the Black Crater. Did a little hike at the top. Interesting and I didn’t realize how much volcanic activity is in the Pacific Northwest. I thought the activity happened only in Hawaii. This was truly surprisingly fun! These caves are amazing!

This is the most awesome and least known national Monument I have ever seen. This is my third trip here, and brought the kids this time. We spent five days, and still didn’t have enough time to see everything we wanted to. There are nearly 800 lava tubes that have been discovered. About 20 have been groomed for public access. We started in the easy and moderate caves, and by our second day we were doing the most difficult caves.
We spent one day at glass mountain seeing an amazing obsidian, and spent the afternoon swimming at medicine Lake. What a fantastic place!
The campsite is fairly barren. There are two small loops with a total of about 40 sites. There are flush toilets and running cold water. No hot water and no showers. There are electric outlets in the bathrooms so you can charge your electronic devices. Each campsite has a picnic table and fire pit, and fires are allowed almost all the time unless fire danger is «extreme». What makes this place so amazing is that no one comes here.
If you are not that into rocks or caves, one day would be enough to see three or four caves. We could have easily spent a week.
Things to bring: be sure to bring bump helmets, if you don’t have those just bring bicycle helmets, those work perfectly well. Bring a headlamp for each person. Knee pads are very helpful. Bring good quality flashlights, or you can check out decent flashlights from the visitor center for free. The guided tours are great, nice to mix guided tours with caving on your own.
I won’t go into which are the best caves, because they are all really cool.

I am not a caver, so I rate this at 4 stars.
This park is remote and bizarre and definitely worth a visit. My favorite was captain jack’s stronghold and a spot with the multi-​colored lava. There is even a crater, too.

Lava Beds is an ancient volcanic site with vast fields of pumice from past eruptions and caves left by ancient lava flows. You can drive up to (or kinda near) many of the caves and go spelunking on your own. My son and I went down one cave into the lower level which had an ice floor in the middle of July! Native Americans had a presence here (it was one of their sacred sites) and have left prehistoric wall paintings in some of the caves.
Because of the strewn volcanic rocks everywhere you need to be sure-​footed and wear boots. Bring food and water so you can hang out longer (it is pretty far from any mod cons!) Check out my photos and get to the park!!!

Lava Beds National Monument was my last frontier. I’ve explored or have driven through almost all other areas in California but I used Lava Beds as my touchstone for the northeast section of the State. I wasn’t disappointed.
As the mountains level off into a plateau, the area in and around Lava Beds reveals a home to an amazing variety and quantity of bird life. I’m no birder with binoculars dangling from my neck but I couldn’t help but get drawn into this world. It’s like a decadent bird resort.
One reason I came to Lava Beds was to photograph the fern cave — whose images appear all over the web — but I was told that the Modoc view the fern cave as a sacred place and they are disappointed by the photographs. I respected that and moved on.
Pictographs and petroglyphs are another wonderful layer of interest here and no one should visit Lava Beds without seeing Petroglyph Point. There are thousands of petroglyphs — hundreds easily visible to the visitor who walks along the fenced area at the base of the cliff.
I must interrupt this description of the petroglyph experience to talk about birds again. Above the petroglyphs, in the face of the cliff, are hundreds or thousands of holes and nooks and cracks in the rock that provide free hotel space for thousands of birds. They don’t like visitors, so pull out your lawn chair and sit still to watch the flurry of activity on display. Overhead, I saw thousands of sparrows, a few owls and hawks, small black birds with red markings and some with bright yellow heads. Sparrow nests wedged into the stone appeared like abstract sculpture. It was all quite incredible.
The next morning I drove along Tule Lake and watched even more birds frolic in the marshes. I passed a professional photographer whose gigantic zoom lens — bigger and probably more expensive than his tiny rental car — was focused on a large bird circling above the shimmer of the lake.
Yeah, I didn’t talk about the caves or the lava beds so other reviewers will have to cover that experience. I was moved by the wildlife and the long vistas on this plateau so there’s not much else I can say.