Lava Beds National Park Caving 8-8-09

Ah yes, caving. Lava Beds is full of caves, formed by lava flowing underground so many years ago. We took the kids to Hopkins Chocolate Cave & Sunshine.


We didn't get to finish because I felt it was too difficult to go through with the paltry shoes my youngest daughter was wearing.


Back at the campsite we had lunch, and around 4pm, me and 4 others (Beej, Tom, and a guy whose name escapes me at the moment) headed off to the Catacombs. Here's Beej in the Sunshine cave.


I was given all sorts of warnings & descriptions prior to going in about how it was famous for ripping up clothing, getting caught, about the small passages. Beej asked me if I get claustrophobic (I do, but only in crowds of people).

Here's a map Beej scanned in (click for a larger version).


My apologies for not having any more pictures inside the caves. I could have brought my Canon, but I didn't think it'd be a good idea, given the hardness & sharpness of the rocks. My Palm Pre did pretty well, but it was also extremely dark. Beej took some pictures that I'll post once he sends them along.

We made a loop through the Catacombs, entering one side, and exiting the other. We got to see Cleopatra's Tomb and the Elephant's Rump, passing between at the Upstairs Crossover. Some of the passages required navigation on our bellies, as the crawlspace wasn't much bigger than our bodies. Inching over what's called the AA Floor, there was no way to crawl without heavy duty gloves to grab the sharp floor, moving forward in sort of a half pushup position, and moving forward with our feet. Other times, we crouched down as low as we could get; quite often, we were doing a bear crawl, crouched down on all fours with our heads up so as to avoid scratching our backsides with the sharp ceiling.

Surprisingly, we found that someone had been smoking in one of the rooms. This was after crawling up what my companions lovingly referred to as the vagina, and out another of their terms, the anus. Oddly enough, those titles were perfect descriptions of our situation.

Beej hurt himself when he tried to crawl to the second to last room, so we decided to head back. While he said the return was easier, it was more or less the same kind of navigation.

My thanks go out to Beej for his knowledge and guiding skills. I probably could have navigated with a map, but certainly wouldn't have been in near as good hands. His guiding skills would be well paid for in other situations.

While it was hard work, I quite enjoyed navigating the Catacombs, although it'll certainly be a few years before I feel comfortable taking any of our kids through.