Lava Beds National Monument, in the far northeastern corner of the state, is the most remote and forgotten of California’s parks, and also one of its most interesting. The history of these volcanic caves and huge black lava flows is as violent as the natural forces that created them. Before the Gold Rush the area was home to the Modoc Indians, but repeated and bloody confrontations with miners led the government to order them into a reservation shared with another, traditionally enemy, tribe. After only a few months the Modocs drifted back to the isolation of the lava beds, and in 1872 the army was sent in. Fifty-two Modoc warriors, under the leadership of “Captain Jack,” held back an army twenty times the size of theirs for five months from a natural fortress of passageways now known as Captain Jack’s Stronghold, at the park’s northern tip. You can retrace the conflict and the US press’ pressure on the Army to abandon its cause, through well-detailed self-guided trails in the park as well as an exhibit at the visitor center (summer daily 8am–6pm; rest of year daily 8am–5pm; tel 530/667-2282).
Most of the best features are concentrated in the south of Lava Beds National Monument, although the scenic drive in the north passes by the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge, good for bird watching, and also in this region are several historic sites dating from the Modoc War of 1872. In this campaign, the US army fought a group of local Indians who refused to leave their traditional lands in this part of California in exchange for a reservation in Oklahoma and although they held out for a while, hiding in the lava fields, all were eventually captured or killed. One additional area of interest is to the northeast, where a small disconnected section of the monument contains a cliff with ancient Indian petroglyphs.
Lava Caves: The lava tube caves are the most visited feature, and a group along a one way loop road near the visitor center have been developed for public access; over a dozen are signposted and are mostly quite easy to explore, with steps constructed at the entrance and some other steep places. There is still an element of risk as the caves may be narrow and require exploring on hands and knees, or have floors made of unstable, sharp lava blocks. Often they have many branches that can be quite confusing at first although all interlink and head in the same general direction. Lights are required and hard hats are advisable; both may be rented at the visitor center. There is a wide variation in the conditions underground - some caves have large passages filled with boulders from collapsed ceilings, while others have a much fresher appearance with smooth sides, a perfectly round cross-section, rippled lava floor and tidemarks from previous flows along the walls.
Caves on the Loop Road: The NPS has installed electric lights, informative signs and a walkway in one short cave (Mushpot) next to the visitor center, so this is a good place for explorations to start. The others along the loop road present a range of features, such as the following: Sunshine is short but quite large and has 2 openings in the roof that allow for plants and flowers to grow where the sunlight enters. Sentinel is a long cave with 2 entrances half a mile apart and passages on several levels. Catacombs is the longest system - a convoluted network of criss-crossing tubular passages that extends deep underground and becomes increasingly difficult to follow as the openings become narrower.
Sites in the North: To the north various side roads branch off the main scenic drive to other caves including Skull and Merril, both of which have passages on two levels with ice floors in the lower chambers although these have been melting over the last few years and visitor access may be restricted. A little further north, the black cone of Schonchin Butte rises 600 feet above the lava beds. At the top, built on an outcrop of red lava blocks, is a fire lookout station, and a hike to the summit offers excellent views over the whole monument and beyond to Tule Lake and the Medicine Lake Mountains. On most days Mount Shasta can be seen, 15 miles to the southwest, and in clear weather even the Crater Lake volcano is visible, 80 miles to the north in Oregon. The climb takes just 20 minutes, up the east side which has bushes and a variety of wildflowers, in contrast to the west face that is just bare ash. No hiking is allowed on this slope, or on any of the other cinder cones in the monument. The last major volcanic feature is a collection of colourful, jagged lava piles surrounding several spatter cones known as the Fleener Chimneys, which several thousand years ago produced the 4 mile Devils Homestead Lava Flow (the rough aa type of lava) that extends from here northwards. Past this location, the remainder of the scenic drive passes scattered lava deposits with roadside viewpoints and several historical sites.
Nearby Places
Medicine Lake: One popular site is Medicine Lake. This is a small area of water, formerly a crater, with several boat launches and rather pricey primitive campsites, and which lies close to the Medicine Lake Glass Flow, a high mass of sharp lava blocks. There are no trails but it is easy enough to scramble up the slope and walk across the uneven, rather alien landscape that has deep crevasses, boulder piles and very little vegetation. Free camping is available in the surrounding national forest land.
More Lava: The route to the lake, the Lava Beds-Medicine Lake Road, continues south for another 7 miles to the more remote Burnt Lava Flow Wilderness Area, a much larger lava deposit surrounded by a ring of cinder cones and containing several ice caves. Similar scenery is found at Glass Mountain, east of Medicine Lake, where a hill of glassy lava rises several hundred feet above the surrounding pine woodland.
Practicalities