Images of the caves of Lava Beds National Monument – Northern California, taken in April 2017.

There are over 25 easily accessible caves in Lava Beds National Monument, most of which are only moderately challenging. I tackled 11 of them staying away from any that would challenge my bad knees which meant only those caves where you could walk upright most of the time. I wasn’t crawling through anything but I would still have to hike into and out of them, most over tough lava rock terrain.

My two favorite caves were Heppe Ice Cave and Valentine Cave. Heppe is easy to get to and once inside had an ice covered pond at the bottom but most interesting were the ice formations formed from water dripping into the cave. Now when ice is involved hiking becomes more difficult, then throw in a dark cave and you have a recipe for disaster…and I know that so I was being careful; not that it helped as I took a dive into a small ditch next to the path as I approached the ice covered pond. I was saved from injury by the fact that I’m young, strong and agile…well two out of three isn’t bad…

Valentine Cave presented another type of problem. The cave is wide and tall and very accessible but that just drew me in farther and farther as my curiosity got the best of me. Finally I got to a point where I would have to stoop and crawl to continue so I decided to turn around and head back out. I didn’t get far when I ran into a dead end…a dead end. Somewhere I made a wrong turn…a wrong turn in a cave, underground, without a map or a way to get my bearing. This is bad, not only was there no one else in the cave but I had only seen people earlier in the day at the visitor center…and that was hours ago. Staring at that dead end a wave of panic swept over me. No one knows I’m here and I could be lost in a cave…did I mention that those are underground!? Okay, I gathered myself and retraced my steps back to the “stoop and crawl” spot where I originally turned around and started to remember some of the landmarks, or is it “cavemarks” in this case, that I had seen on the way in. Mostly I was looking for areas that I had stepped over since the cave floor was the thing I was watching most as it is uneven and need to be paid attention to at all times. Since you are reading this passage, needless to say, I made it back out. The incredible relief I felt when I saw that first glimpse of natural light is hard to explain. I’m not sure that I was actually worried about being lost forever but more that the park service would have to find me after they realized that an unattended car was sitting at the mouth of Valentine Cave at the end of the day. That would be embarrassing.

A friend Greg, who documented his travels in a book, would always end his daily travel passages by saying “I wonder what’s around the corner up ahead…let’s go check it out…”, This experience attests to the fact that I shouldn’t always feel the need to “go check it out” at least when a cave is involved…did I mention that those are underground?