Lava Beds National Monument, California

August 31, 2025

California is a big state. While those of us not from here tend to conjure up images of significant population centers like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego when thinking of California, the fact remains that parts of it are far away from the big cities. Our destination was such a place.

When Julie was routing our trip, she was looking for a place between Crater Lake and Lassen Volcanic national parks where we could avoid the crowds of the Labor Day weekend. Looking at a map, it appeared that there weren't a whole lot of options that didn't veer too far out of the way. But then an intriguing sounding national monument in the absolute middle of nowhere caught her eye--Lava Beds National Monument, and a piece of the route-planning puzzle was found.

We stayed at a quiet mom-and-pop RV park conveniently located about 15 miles from the visitor center of the national monument.

Leaving the lush forest of Crater Lake

Not as many trees here in southern Oregon

Close to our destination

Our pleasant site at Hawk's Nest RV Park

We were visited by California quails most evenings

We were only at this location for three nights, so the day after arrival we headed directly for Lava Beds National Monument. The geologically unique landscape is home to lots of lava and the hundreds of lava tubes left behind from the Medicine Lake volcano. An excerpt from the NPS sums things up:

The monument is located on the Medicine Lake shield volcano, which is the largest volcano by volume in the Cascade Range at 144 cubic miles. Shield volcanoes are broad, gently sloping mountains that form from many dispersed, low energy eruptions of very fluid molten rock. These liquid rock flows are able to travel great distances before hardening, and result in a large, low-profile volcano. This is in contrast to the tall, pointed composite cones (or stratovolcanoes) that form from eruptions of relatively thick, cool lavas exploding or oozing from a central collection of vents.

For anyone interested in how the lava tubes were formed, you can read this

The biggest draw to the national monument are the 20+ lava tube caves that you can explore on your own. They are not lit, so you have to provide your own flashlights. Helmets are also recommended, as some of the ceilings are quite low (and sharp). We ended up exploring five of the caves.

The scenery on the way to Lava Beds. There had been a wildfire here in the recent past, so there were a smattering of dead trees. They actually looked appropriate here.

We needed to register at the visitor center to get free permits to explore the caves

The trail to our first (and favorite) cave, Golden Dome

A little bit of a tight fit going down into Golden Dome Cave

The cave got its name from the yellowish hydrophobic bacteria colonies that causes water droplets to glisten like metallic gold on it.

The photos unfortunately don't quite capture the metallic sparkle effect

We were glad to have helmets because this would hurt if you scraped your head on it

There was a fair amount of stooping in this cave.

This crack looked like it had been painted in gold leaf

Of the five caves that we went in, Golden Dome was the longest and had the most side passages to explore. It was kind of a relief to find the ladder to the way out.

The path to one of the other caves.

Every cave was different in how you entered it.

Some of the caves had quite tall ceilings

This cave had several collapses, creating "skylights"

Some of the caves rated "easy" had stairs and pathways that made it easier to move about, but at the expense of "fun"

Entering "Skull Cave"

We were disappointed that we couldn't actually walk on the ice floor.

We at least got to see a few icicles, though.

Peering at the assumed namesake of Skull Cave

"Take me to your leader!"

After we had seen enough caves, we drove north through the rest of the park.

Fleener lava chimneys

Even on a holiday weekend, we were the only ones at this pull-off

This lava field resembled a giant rototilled bed of soil. (It was nothing of the sort--it was hard, jagged rock!)

Just north of the national monument was the Tule Lake Wildlife Refuge

We walked to a hunting/photography blind that we found at the side of the road

We "shot" a couple of ducks through the blind

How exciting--it's not a mallard!

The next day, we rode our bikes from our campsite to a nearby fire tower.

The road up was a bit more steep and rocky/rutted than Julie prefers

Near the top, we transitioned to a much better dirt road that had been recently graded. You can see the fire tower in the distance just beyond Rick.

This fire tower is currently manned, and the keeper graciously invited us up to have a look around. She shared her experience of living in the tower over the summer and how she spotted the smoke of nine wildfires so far this season. We talked with her quite a while. We think she may have been grateful for some company.

The view from the fire tower

Heading back down a much better road than the one we took coming up. Julie was very appreciative!

Next stop--Lassen Volcanic National Park!

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