Oops... I somehow got these out of order. On our way to Crescent city from
Klamath Falls, we stopped at some volcano beds. The beds themselves were pretty dull and boring, but the rest was FUN! First, we turned out to some
petroglyphs. The surrounding mountains were beautiful.
There was a lot of farm land in the area also, but it was interesting that we both felt we could just as easily have been in Nevada as California. I think that's often the case when you travel through states.
Do not be fooled by the sign that reads
Petroglyph trail. We were. We hiked this trail and discovered there were, in fact, no
petroglyphs. Instead they were all at the base of the mountain where we originally parked.
Again, doesn't it look just like Nevada?
Here are some of the
petroglyps. The signs said they were thousands of years old.
Unfortunately, people over the years had seriously vandalized this part of the mountain so it was difficult to determine which markings had been there for some time and which were new. It was, however, interesting to see so many inscriptions from the early 1900's. People had carved their names and then put the dates. There were also portions that had barbed wire around it to salvage the integrity of the
petroglyphs. It truly is awe inspiring to think of a people so long ago having this version of writing. I can't imagine a world where anything you want to pass down has to be carved in stone. Brian was really interested in this portion and spent a lot of time reading and deciphering the inscriptions.
Then we drove around and, like I mentioned, it was nothing spectacular. I was ready to call it a wash and head to the coast, but Brian persisted and convinced me to drive a little bit farther. Only moments later we came across a sign that said "cave" so we decided to check it out. I'm so glad that he wasn't as impatient as I was because it turned out to be a day of exciting cave exploration. Because of all the volcanic activity, there were all kinds of lava chutes left over that were open to the public. Though they were available, they were not very accessible. They were cold (formerly ice caves) and dark dark dark. Brian had one flashlight which we shared. It was a little tricky going down numerous stairs with one light. At times I attempted to use my cell phone to see, but it was so dark I couldn't even see the light on my phone. This picture was taken in the third cave we went through. It was by far the biggest. There were all kinds of tunnels and you could easily get lost down there (actually I did). Thank goodness Brian was paying attention because you
have a lot of choices of turns and tunnels and I got disoriented. It was really neat in all of them, but scary... I'm not gonna lie.
This is the entrance to the first cave we discovered. It's amazing as you walk because every step you take the temperature drops significantly. In the caves with stairs, the hand rails were literally frozen.
Again, this is the third cave; the most spacious.
This is the entrance to the third cave. It was hard to capture in pictures, but the chutes go on both
sides resulting in a big circular entrance.
This is the first, and shortest cave.
Here we are about to enter it. It was quite spooky being the only people so far beneath the surface. There was a sign that said if you saw bats to quietly exit. I'm glad we didn't encounter any, though I think Brian kind of wanted to.
This is the second and deepest cave. Every stair case we went down we thought was the last only to discover they kept going and going and going. The first was called
Morril Cave. The second, skull cave. The reason for the name is because when they first discovered it, they found thousands of skulls and skeletal remains, both human and animal, but the majority animal. Experts have yet to determine whether the animals went down seeking water and then were never able to get out or if the native peoples kept animals at the bottom as a sort of fridge or if their spiritual worship incorporated the use of live or dead animals. Perhaps it was a mixture of theories. This cave also is the last of 13 to still have ice at the bottom. For some reason in the year 2000 the ice started melting and they have only been able to salvage an ice floor in this cave. In the early 1900s people would come and ice skate in the bottoms of these caves.
Portions were very wide and open, others were small, scary spaces. We attempted to go through one chute on our hands and knees, but I abandoned the endeavor and we went back where we could stand or stoop.
This was an interesting and exciting discovery that we certainly had not planned.
And we both dug it!
There was a lot of farm land in the area also, but it was interesting that we both felt we could just as easily have been in Nevada as California. I think that's often the case when you travel through states.
Do not be fooled by the sign that reads Petroglyph trail. We were. We hiked this trail and discovered there were, in fact, no petroglyphs. Instead they were all at the base of the mountain where we originally parked.
Again, doesn't it look just like Nevada?
Here are some of the petroglyps. The signs said they were thousands of years old. Unfortunately, people over the years had seriously vandalized this part of the mountain so it was difficult to determine which markings had been there for some time and which were new. It was, however, interesting to see so many inscriptions from the early 1900's. People had carved their names and then put the dates. There were also portions that had barbed wire around it to salvage the integrity of the petroglyphs. It truly is awe inspiring to think of a people so long ago having this version of writing. I can't imagine a world where anything you want to pass down has to be carved in stone. Brian was really interested in this portion and spent a lot of time reading and deciphering the inscriptions.
Then we drove around and, like I mentioned, it was nothing spectacular. I was ready to call it a wash and head to the coast, but Brian persisted and convinced me to drive a little bit farther. Only moments later we came across a sign that said "cave" so we decided to check it out. I'm so glad that he wasn't as impatient as I was because it turned out to be a day of exciting cave exploration. Because of all the volcanic activity, there were all kinds of lava chutes left over that were open to the public. Though they were available, they were not very accessible. They were cold (formerly ice caves) and dark dark dark. Brian had one flashlight which we shared. It was a little tricky going down numerous stairs with one light. At times I attempted to use my cell phone to see, but it was so dark I couldn't even see the light on my phone. This picture was taken in the third cave we went through. It was by far the biggest. There were all kinds of tunnels and you could easily get lost down there (actually I did). Thank goodness Brian was paying attention because you have a lot of choices of turns and tunnels and I got disoriented. It was really neat in all of them, but scary... I'm not gonna lie.
This is the entrance to the first cave we discovered. It's amazing as you walk because every step you take the temperature drops significantly. In the caves with stairs, the hand rails were literally frozen.
Again, this is the third cave; the most spacious.
This is the entrance to the third cave. It was hard to capture in pictures, but the chutes go on both sides resulting in a big circular entrance.
This is the first, and shortest cave.
Here we are about to enter it. It was quite spooky being the only people so far beneath the surface. There was a sign that said if you saw bats to quietly exit. I'm glad we didn't encounter any, though I think Brian kind of wanted to.
This is the second and deepest cave. Every stair case we went down we thought was the last only to discover they kept going and going and going. The first was called Morril Cave. The second, skull cave. The reason for the name is because when they first discovered it, they found thousands of skulls and skeletal remains, both human and animal, but the majority animal. Experts have yet to determine whether the animals went down seeking water and then were never able to get out or if the native peoples kept animals at the bottom as a sort of fridge or if their spiritual worship incorporated the use of live or dead animals. Perhaps it was a mixture of theories. This cave also is the last of 13 to still have ice at the bottom. For some reason in the year 2000 the ice started melting and they have only been able to salvage an ice floor in this cave. In the early 1900s people would come and ice skate in the bottoms of these caves. 
Portions were very wide and open, others were small, scary spaces. We attempted to go through one chute on our hands and knees, but I abandoned the endeavor and we went back where we could stand or stoop.
This was an interesting and exciting discovery that we certainly had not planned.
And we both dug it!
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