We’re staying in the tiny area known as Tionesta, CA, consisting of a handful of homes and two rv parks. Before 1955, a post office operated here because local employees of the Great Northern Railway lived here. Now the nearest post office is in Tule Lake, CA, 25 miles away. Tionesta is the southern gateway to Lava Beds National Monument and the 800 or so caves there so hiking and cave crawling are huge in this area.
We had hoped to see a beautiful night sky last night, but the remnants of the day’s storm and a full moon foiled that plan. It was, however, a pretty fancy sky last night.
Fitst thing this morning we took off west to find a glass mountain. Initially, the trees were mostly pinion trees, but as we went deeper into the Modoc National Forest, we began to see Douglas Fir and Ponderosa pines.
Glass Mountain is a huge volcanic deposit, containing large amounts of obsidian left from an eruption that occurred about 2.1 million years ago. The road became narrower and narrower and we saw a lot of no trespassing signs posted by the Louisiana Pacific lumber company. When we lost cell phone reception and the road turned to beat up asphalt and gravel, we decided to turn around!
Back in Tionesta, we decided to drive north into Lava Beds NM. Signs of forest fires were everywhere.
Early afternoon storm clouds began to gather, and the clouds were spectacular!
If you have an interest in geology, you will be fascinated by this place! A variety of types of lava flows are identified, don’t ask me, but the overwhelming magnitude of the flows from past volcanic eruptions and activity cannot be adequately described.
Valentine cave was our introduction to lava tubes, where lava continues to flow under cooler, surface lava. Many of the tubes are open for exploration by the public after registering at the visitors center.
The storm continued to form and we continued to explore!
In a number of places, collapsed tubes could be seen.
Lava formations were scattered everywhere.
Known as The Devils Homestead, this huge flow occurred relatively recently, about 10,500 years ago.
We missed seeing Skull Cave, a relatively short cave, but interesting because it contains pockets of ice that have remained there, year round, for as long as anyone can remember!
Exiting the north entrance, we saw what was between us and home!
And, guess what….the rest of the day has been a washout…..
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