Lava Beds National Monument
We left Crater Lake and headed south, back into California to Lava Beds National Monument. We had left the big trees behind and were now clearly following a path that showed the volcanic influence on our country. There is, of course, a lot of that throughout the far western states as part of the "Pacific's Ring of Fire" which also encompasses Alaska, countries in Asia and Central and South America.
We've been to some remote, wilderness places on our trip so far, but let me just say, Lava Beds was in the middle of nowhere. There used to be a really big lake there, Tule Lake, that was a water resource for the surrounding high desert area and used by the indigenous peoples and wildlife. But the government, our government, decided they could make money and settle the area with eurocentric folks if they drained much of the lake and sold off lots as prime farm land. 🙄
Needless to say, this set up a conflict between the indigenous peoples and the eurocentric settlers before the newer folks even started to settle in the area. The indigenous of the area, the Modocs, were sent to Fort Klamath in Oregon, a densely forrested area where their high desert skills and way of life did not adapt well, to say nothing about the fact that the Klamath people were enemies of the Modocs. After a period of time, the Modocs, led by Kintpuash, (Captain Jack) left Fort Klamath and returned to their homeland. What followed was the Modoc War, one of the last conflicts in the Indian Wars. This war lasted nearly a year and included two major battles. In the first battle, 53 Modoc warriers not only held off the US army with its superior numbers of 400 troops, but inflicted significant damage. The army lost 35 men and had an additional 5 officers and 20 enlisted wounded. The Modocs lost none, no one killed or injured. For the second battle, the army increased to 1000 men with reinforcements and still it wasn't a decisive win. However, the army did capture the Modoc's water source which was the beginning of the end for Captain Jack and the Modocs.
This area is also the location of another less than stellar moment in the history of our country. It is the location of one of the detention camps for the Japanese Americans during WWII. This camp went from an internment camp to a detention camp because the management failed to explain a survey, a questionnaire, that was sent out by the government. Due to this lack of explanation, up to 40% of the Japanese Americans interred there were listed as enemy combatants. At a nearby camp the survey was explained and 0% of their people were considered enemy combatants. 🤔
Moving on past the social and political failures, let's take a look at some of the geologic features that make this area unique. A long, long time ago there was a very large volcano, Medicine Lake volcano. It wasn't what we think of as the "typical" composite or stratovolcano. 🌋 It was a shield volcano, a broad, not very tall volcano resulting from the lava coming out of vents along the sides and along the bottom which caused the volcano to spread out, not up,
This activity causes "rivers" of lava to flow away from the volcano. If the rivers are hot molten lava, the outsides cool while the hot lava continues to flow on the inside until it either all flows out the end or it slowly cools and forms a plug at the end. This creates a lava tube. Sometimes the tube collapses leaving a pile of sharp jumbled rock, but other times, as the years go by, dirt builds up on the tubes and they create underground caves. This area has tons of lava tube caves. The other feature of this landscape is formed when the lava is not as hot. It cools as it is pushed out so it breaks and splits into sharp chunks and jumbled masses.
So here we are in the high desert, near a drained, dried up lakebed, with acres and acres of sharp, chunky, jumbled, black basalt littering the landscape. We're in the middle of nowhere, I mean miles and miles from anything. And as if that wasn't enough, they had recently had a fire. Let me just say, it looked pretty dismal at first sight. I teased Martin that he only takes me to the best places. 😂 And trust me, it definitely qualifies as one of those places where you have to look for the beauty, but it's there. (Especially if you're a volcanologist 🙄). The more we explored, the more treasures we found, but I think this is a "one and done" Park for me. I'm just not sure that I, personally, have to go back.
On to pics …
Collapsed lava tube with a cinder cone in the distance.
another collapsed lava tube
This is one of the lava fields that covered a section of the park. It is from the cooler lava that pushes and breaks apart leaving sharp ridges and valleys in this jumbled up broken lava. It is very deep. I know it's hard to pick out, but there are some trees growing in that mass of lava. Don't ask me how.
This pic is underground, inside a lava tube. We went on a guided tour which I have to confess was really quite interesting (and you know how I feel about caves 😕).
This is the ceiling. I thought it looked a lot like those textured ceilings that were so popular a while ago. Haha!
Glass Mountain.
It is mostly made of obsidian. Our tour guide from the lava tube had hiked this mountain the day before. There was no trail. Apparently he slipped on the way down and cut up his arms, chest and legs. Obsidian is really sharp and was sought by the indigenous peoples for arrows and spearheads.
The following pics are of pieces (chunks) of obsidian found at the base of the mountain. After chatting with our tour guide about it, we were really interested in seeing a "mountain" of obsidian... But we also thought perhaps we should just look at the mountain and decided against hiking up to the top. I know, from a distance it doesn't look like much, but check out what it's really made of.
In one area of the monument there was this great sandstone cliff. There were lots of birds
Swallow nests with babies sticking their little heads out, begging for food. If you look closely at the second pic, there is a blur of a mama swallow delivering some food to her babies.
High up on the cliff were some big nests, hawks? Owls?
I think this one might have been an eagle nest. The base of the cliff had lots of interesting feathers.
The base also had an amazing array of petroglyphs. This sandstone cliff had been an island in the Tule Lake before it was drained. It was clearly a favorite spot to record thoughts? visions? art? At this point no one seems to know exactly what the petroglyphs represent. But I do know one thing for sure, they are amazing and fascinating.
In search of more art, this time pictographs, in a mostly collapsed lava tube leaving just a bridge.
And the light shines through.
In another giant lava tube, looking for more pictographs.
Our campsite. There were a few trees.
But for the most part, the landscape was pretty baren …
and did I mention they'd had a fire???
But look, here is some color
and how pretty is this wheat in the sun, like spun gold.
And there were areas along the trails that had these white flowers …
Only they weren't flowers at all, they were butterflies.
I found Lava Bed National Monument interesting, but as for the beauty. I had to look a little harder for that. There were glimpses of it there, a butterfly, a flower, wheat, golden in the late afternoon sun. But let's just say, I don't think I need to visit this park again. 😏
Next stop:
Lassen Volcanic National Park (Now that's a beautiful park.)
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