Friday July 4, 2014

 
Non-Travel Day


Our destination today was the “Lava Beds National Monument” located to the north east of the campground . We headed east on CA Rt. 89 to forest service roads 46, 97 and 10 which took us through some beautiful back country, through high desert and lush pine forests, over narrow mountain roads where oncoming traffic had to pull over to let us by, and luckily we did not meet much oncoming traffic. At times we questioned our decision to come this way, but it did prove worthwhile and the scenery was beautiful. Lava Beds National Monument lies on the flanks of the massive Medicine Lake Volcano, which during the last half-million years has erupted many times spewing lava, cinders and rocks over a wide area. Here in the park you can explore surface lava flows, walk among the large volcanic rocks and boulders, and descend into numerous lava tubes. After viewing the film in the Visitor’s Center we descended into the “Mushpot Cave”, a lava tube, which has a paved walkway that is lit and with interpretive signs. After that we took a ranger led tour of the “Sentinel Cave” which lasted about 1 and ½ hours, this was a great experience to have a knowledgeable ranger explain the process that created the various types of rocks and the lava tube through which we were
walking. Jack explored a third lava tube, the “Golden Dome Cave”, while Valerie relaxed back at the truck. Leaving the park we wanted to take a different route home, so we headed north on CA Rt. 139, west on CR Rt. 161 then south on US 97, I-5 and east on CA Rt. 89 to the campground. This route took us through some beautiful farmland and then the Ponderosa Pine forests that cover much of the higher mountain sides. For almost the entire trip back we had the snow caped 14,000 foot “Mount Shasta” as a beacon toward which we were heading.