Lava Beds NM pics

[Hulk]

I recently visited Lava Beds National Monument in CA. You can go into caves and see ancient pictographs. It’s beautiful, amazing geology (mountains of obsidian!), human history and seemly less traveled. There were few people and it was great.

We also traveled through the Modoc National Forest for many miles of off road adventure and hardly saw another human. The snow was still blocking remote Forrest roads and some of the roads around Medicine Lake in June! I even got high centered on a snow drift and had fun using the wench, snatch blocks, tree straps and traction boards. I love my SMB!

[N147JK]

We were just there in April! When we first arrived, we looked around at all the burned out forest and thought we might not stay. Then found out the best parts of the Monument are actually underground. Walked some of the caves, saw the petroglyphs and pictographs.

The major National Parks are so overcrowded now we are starting to avoid them entirely. These kinds of lesser-known parks are still quiet and uncrowded. We really enjoyed our stay..

[YoTerryh]

Growing up in Klamath Falls, I loved visiting the Lava Beds. It was a favorite place to take of of town guests or just explore. The history of the Modoc Indians and Captain Jack's stronghold, the caves, the Petroglyphs, the wildlife, it was and is a magical place. I spent two nights in the campground there at the start of my winter trip in 2021 and had a pretty good snowstorm my second day. I had the campground to myself and enjoyed exploring a few caves to get out of the snowy weather above ground.

[Hulk]

Originally Posted by YoTerryh

Growing up in Klamath Falls, I loved visiting the Lava Beds. It was a favorite place to take of of town guests or just explore. The history of the Modoc Indians and Captain Jack's stronghold, the caves, the Petroglyphs, the wildlife, it was and is a magical place. I spent two nights in the campground there at the start of my winter trip in 2021 and had a pretty good snowstorm my second day. I had the campground to myself and enjoyed exploring a few caves to get out of the snowy weather above ground.

Seeing the area in the snow would be dramatic. Thanks for sharing. The history there was wonderful to see. Ancient and a sacred place for humans and Imagine all of the wildlife that used to be there!


We covered a lot of the back roads in the Modoc Wilderness while coming from the McCloud side. Trees for miles and miles. Then the burned areas as we got closer to Medicine Lake. That was a vast burned area for sure. Lots of logging going on to salvage lumber. We got within 2 miles of the lake and the road was again covered in snow. What a water year.


We will go back for sure. So few people, hundreds of miles of 4x4 roads and wild spaces. My kind of earth.

[campism]

I was there about 40 years ago in my then-new Nissan pickup. Neat place and underappreciated.