Lava Beds and Crater Lake

---

After leaving Lake Tahoe we headed north again up to Lava Beds National Monument near the Oregon/California border. We arrived fairly late in the afternoon and just had time to visit the visitor centre and set up camp before watching the sun set over the cinder cones, lava flows and sagebrush. After dinner we set off in the dark to one of the many lava tubes in the park - this one was lit up by sensor lights and had information about all the different formations you can see in the lava tunnels.

The next morning after a frosty night we explored some more of the tunnels including one very large one that was about 20m high and had some really neat flow lines around the sides from various lava levels. All these tunnels had spiky ceilings from when the lava dripped down and some had many levels with a few tunnels running underneath others or joining into each other. There are different levels of lava tunnel to visit with Easy ones where you are able to stand up, Moderate with some tight bits and Difficult where you often had to crawl along for significant sections. One tunnel was over a mile long!

The next stop in Lava Beds was the Petroglyph point unit where large cliffs of underwater volcanic deposits have now been left high and dry and with a whole series of drawings carved into the sides by the Modoc tribe of Indians. They used to canoe over Tule Lake (now a wildlife refuge) to carve these petroglyphs but now you can drive right up to them and view them behind a protective fence. The cliffs are also home to a variety of nesting birds including the Bald Eagle but unfortunately we didn't see one despite it being their favourite spot this time of year.

Driving north into Oregon we encountered a lot of fog and only really came out of it at the turn off to Crater Lake. There was a lot of snow up at Crater Lake so the Rim Drive was closed and we were only able to get to the rim straight up from the visitor centre. Was still a great view and quite neat with all the snow. Clouds came rolling in as we were there though and it got really cold so we were pretty happy to head off again!

We arrived in at Eugene just after sunset (5pm) and had a wonderful next couple of days with our family friends Howie and Judi. They took us out bike riding around the river and it was awesome to catch up after 11 years - thanks heaps to both of you!!

---