Day 13: Lava Beds National Monument

Tuesday, July 8

We ate breakfast early and were in the Lava Beds visitor center. There we got big flash lights and hard hats so we could see in the dark caves. After a short introduction from a ranger, we first visited Mushpot cave. This is the easiest cave Lava Beds has to offer. It is lighted and has a paved path to walk on. After walking the 700 feet back and forth, we left the cave and walked the .4 mile Cave loop all the way to Golden Dome cave. We climbed down the ladder and had to duck because the ceiling was low. This was a medium skill cave. The hard ones require knee pads and much ducking, squatting, and crawling. We made our way through the rocks until we came to a big pile. Mom turned around because she was scared and the four others went on. We climbed over the pile and through and around more rocks. We walked for 500-800 feet before the ceiling got about 4 feet (1 meter) and we had to turn around because dad couldn't get through and he didn't want to crawl. We walked to another easy cave and it took us about 30 minutes to complete it. There were two entrances/exits and the whole thing was over 3,000 feet, the second longest cave in the park. We drove past the Oregon border and were now in Oregon. Just before the border a gas station sold gas for $4.65 and over the border you could get it for 30 cents less! We drove all the way to Crater Lake National Park. After we checked in at our RV Resort we drove to Diamond Lake. There we swam for a while and then Viki, Valentin, and Max went to drive a paddle boa. We saw another boat and started hitting them. We docked our boat and went back to Diamond Lake RV Park. WE had chicken drumsticks for dinner and played a game after Valentin went to bed until 11:00. We
went to bed exhausted.

Day 13: Lava Beds National Monument