Day 59: Lava Beds National Monument to Lassen Volcanic National Park, CA

After writing our blog entry last night, we were supremely lucky to witness the most captivating sunset of the trip so far. The splashes of red, orange and pink across the sky were so unbelievable, they almost looked fake. It was like lava in the sky!

    

The sky is on fire!

After a restful sleep, we were excited to explore more of what Lava Beds National Monument has to offer. We headed away from Cave Loop to check out two caves popular because they feature thousands of years old petroglyphs created by Native Americans. In my experience, petroglyphs can often be disappointing as they are usually faded and hard to see. We were thrilled to report that this was not the case here, especially in Symbol Bridge Cave we visited second.

The first cave we checked out was called Big Painted Cave. While the drawings were faint, they were definitely visible. We were really happy that there were actually petroglyphs that we could see.

If Big Painted Cave was good, Symbol Bridge Cave was phenomenal. The cave drawings were obvious. Their dark colours made them easy to see. It was incredibly cool to be able to see them so close up - this was a night and day difference compared to what we were supposed to be able to see in Petroglyph State Park earlier in the trip.

We learned that many of these drawings were created by the Indigenous Modoc People while they were on spiritual vision quests in the caves. Seeing these was incredible.

Our final cave adventure was an exploration of the very large Skull Cave. This one featured a ram’s skull at the bottom and even cooler (literally) - an ice floor.

Going down, down, down to see the ice floor.

The ice floor. It was more water and slush.

Ram skull at the bottom of the cave.

After picking up our trailer, we embarked on a midday drive through Adin (where we had lunch) and Burney (where we got gas), before arriving at Lassen Volcanic National Park. 

Liam at the Adin General Store. They had one of everything.

Mount Lassen - one of four types of volcanos present in this park.

We checked in to Manzanita  Lake Campground, toured the Visitors’ Centre and watched the park film. Next it was time to paddle board! The boys had been itching to do this since their foiled attempt in Grand Teton. They paddled around the lake alongside the very friendly geese.

The line to get into the park was our longest yet.

How they used to monitor for earthquakes.

The pinecones here are the actual size of Ali’s head!

How you doin’? Got any grapes?

Our campsite B20.

After dinner at our campsite, we are all in bed early to rest up for a big adventure tomorrow as we explore this new place.