Lava Beds National Monument

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We passed by Lava Beds National Monument during our stay in Oregon.  For a $15 one-week entrance fee we could explore more than twenty caves!


Inside one of the caves my family and I turned off all our flashlights and experienced a few seconds of "total darkness".  We couldn't even see our fingers a few inches from our face!  After that experience I began to regret reading Tom Sawyer stories before the trip.


Caves

Inside Golden Dome my four siblings and I actually decided to take a shortcut and ended up crawling on our stomachs!  Thankfully we all had our helmets on and avoided a couple sharp areas.




The rocks in Hopkins Chocolate Cave really looked like chocolate!  Brown...I could smell the aroma of deliciously gooey chocolate!  I'll have to try Rock Chocolate sometime.  :)

Hopkins connected to Juniper Cave.  We got lost in the middle and were relieved to see an opening on top of the cave.  A tree trunk was the only bridge between the ground and the opening.  I proposed that we should climb up and look around for our van.  I felt that it would probably be a shortcut since we were all exhausted from going around and around in circles (at least it felt that way!).

When I crawled out (and not without scratching my arms on the sharp rocks), all I saw was a total "desert" (panorama photo):


However, I heard--and saw--a car passing by, and knew that the main road was somewhere near.  I helped my siblings out of the hole.  Along with our dad, we trooped to the road and discovered we couldn't see any cave signs or road directions!
We had two choices: to follow the winding road up or follow it down.  We decided to go up.

I (feeling responsible for the incident) volunteered to run ahead and check to see if any signs marking the Hopkins Cave entrance was near (we had parked near the sign).  We were all tired, and none of us wanted to have to go the wrong direction and have to turn back and go the other way again.

I ran a short way, panting from the thin air, and noticed the form of a van that looked like ours parked near the side of the road.  After a few more steps and jumps I knew immediately that it was our car.

Exhausted, we all climbed into the van and headed back to the visitor's center, not feeling up for any more cave exploration.


After the conclusion of our trip, however, our entire family decided that Lava Beds National Monument was one of our favorite national parks.

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