August 31, 2011

August 31, 2011

Lava Beds National Monument’s claim to fame is the huge number of lava tube caves. At the Visitor Center we borrow flashlights and then set out to explore a few of the easiest. We start at Skull Cave. This tube is short but cold, so much so, that there is a patch of permanent ice at the end.

Our second trek is Valentine cave. We don’t go far, maybe a hundred yards. It is a little eerie going in an unlighted cave by yourself with only a couple flashlights. Caves have little allure for us. Plus this one has several junctions. I didn’t realize that lava tubes branch off and the tubes are layered on top of each other. We turn around to go back and immediately run into a intersection. Uhoh!
I didn’t notice that on the way in and panic momentarily sets in. Which way? Fortunately another couple is talking at the entrance so we find our way out. Whew! That was too close. The next handful of caves, I look in the entrance but that’s it. My bravery starting to come back, we go in the last easy one, Sentinel. We could hike this one for a half-mile and leave by a second exit. Instead we go a hundred yards and turn around.

Aimee and I are not big cavers. If we were this would be a very nice playground. It is a beautiful park and there are lots of tube caves, large and small, that you can explore on your own, and despite our fears, are relatively safe. You can’t get “too” lost. I could see families having fun here.

This park is a two-fer. On our drive out of the park we explore the above ground history. The Modoc War was fought here in 1872. The Modoc were Indians that lived on a large shallow lake that used to exist on the edge of the lava fields. They refused to go to a reservation in Oregon, so the Army was sent in. Despite being outnumbered 10 to 1, the Modoc held out for six months among the rocky outcroppings and lava tubes inflicting heavy losses. We take a half-mile hike around the main battlefield “lava fortress”.

The park is actually a Three-fer. A few miles away is one of nine sections of the new far-flung park WWII Valor in the Pacific WWII National Monument. This one is the Tule Lake internment camp. We learned about this place at Manzanar a couple weeks ago. Tule Lake started out as one of the ten Japanese internment camps but turned into a more notorious segregation camp. The army forced all internees to answer a loyalty questionnaire. Those that objected or answered with qualifications were deemed disloyal and got sent here. It was a stupid “military intelligence” questionnaire, like asking everybody, “Are you a spy?” The real spies wouldn’t say yes. I met the ranger for this park at Lava Beds yesterday. She gave us a private tour today of the jail after lunch. Despite being new she was very good. Even though most of the camp was sold off or scrapped, it actually doesn’t look too different today. The jail is now surrounded by a migrant labor camp, with the same rows of barrack housing. That is a weird twist of history.