The Duffel Bag: Finding "New To Us" Caves In The Lava Beds Backcountry

Where the spirit leads the feet will follow.

Down distant paths for unmapped miles.

Heads forget but hearts remember:

The art of living knows no bounds.

"The best journeys answer questions that in the beginning you didn't even think to ask." - Jeff Johnson, 180 Degrees South

"The best way out is always through" - Robert Frost

Sleep doesn't help if it's your soul that's tired.

Friday, October 13, 2023

Finding "New To Us" Caves In The Lava Beds Backcountry

On our way South from Oregon, we headed to Lava Beds National Monument in Northern California for a rest day and to view the Annular Solar Eclipse on the 14th. Our rest day turned into a half day of tough, hot exploring of some backcountry caves in the monument we knew were there, but had never hiked to. We didn't have cave gear so we didn't enter any of them, but just hiked up the collapse for a few miles to see what was there.

We were quite surprised to find at least 5 or six caves that were open and looked interesting (a couple might need to be repelled into), and a couple that were closed for bats and other unspecified reasons. These caves are definitely on the list for a return caving trip.

See note below for wildfire story.