Bill Holmes - Activities - Hiking and Biking - Lava Beds National Monument

After leaving Bakers Creek and Discount Tire, I checked-in at the Reno WorldMark facility. The next morning (5/19/10) I rested my back on the floor with my calves on a chair for two hours, before working attempting to work on the computer. I could not get Internet access with their modem that uses the AC wiring to access a server at the facility until I used a kitchen GFI outlet rather than any of the living room outlets without transformers or plug strips attached to them.

My belated Internet access was interrupted at 1:00 PM by an unexpected checkout request thanks to the counter-intuitive WorldMark reservation web site. There were no rooms in Reno for that night, so I booked a second night in Klamath Falls.

I checked-out, and drove to a four-acre auto dismantling facility in Sparks, NV. It took me over two hours to find appropriate rims for the P215 65 R15 95S tires on my Dodge Caravan with a diameter of 16.25 inches, cross bolts separated by 3.61 inches inside or 4.25 inches on centers and adjacent bolts 2 inches inside or 2.68 inches on centers. I found two on a Ford Aerostar of all places. I drove the rims to the Discount Tire store, and had the tires and rims juggled so only the slightly bent rim became my spare, replacing the low-speed spare.

It was too late to make it to Klamath Falls, so I shifted the reservation back a day, drove 395 to 139, and slept in Susanville, CA after a 86.2 mi. drive – about 1 hour 30 mins.


I left Susanville early on 5/20/10, so I had time to visit the Lava Beds National Monument; 135 mi – about 2 hours 43 mins.


The South Entrance road is long and full of pot holes.


Valentine lava tub entrance.


Text


Collapsed lava tube


Entering Sunshine.


Color ceiling looks like bats in places.


More bats.


Main tunnel Ts.


Hydrophobic bacteria look like silver.


Close-up of hydrophobic bacteria.


Wet cave floor.


Silver everywhere.


Silver mud.


More silver.


More silver.


Self explanatory.


Yet another lava tube.


Gold hydrophobic bacteria.


More gold.


Cinder cones.


Just north of the Lave Caves Visitor Center is the road to Mammoth Crater.


Panorama of the inside of the cone that fed all the lava tubes in the park.


Just north of Mammoth Crater are the Splatter Cones - AKA "Chimneys."


The three Fleener Chimneys looking north from the sign. The fault from which lava spilled throughout the valley goes through the little valley in the center.


Small lava tube along trail to top.


View East from the chimneys.


Tube on north side.


View from one vent flow to northeast splatter cone. The foreground is what it does when it's oozing rather than splattering.


The view inside after volunteers in 1990-91 laboriously removed 35 tons of trash with buckets. The other two chimneys remain filled. The deepest is 50 feet.


Like this one.


Extremely light and colorful basalt.


Slow flow from the cleared chimney.


The view south from the chimneys.


A lava flow the highway crosses.


Next stop north was the petroglyphs.