Today the park offers one of the most unique opportunities. Unlike most caves these were formed by lava flows. These tunnels are some times "stacked" on top of each other creating overlaps. Some times the stacked tunnels run in the same direction. When the floor/roof collapses between levels a connection is created. In some case one can see up to four levels up while navigating one of the lower tubes.
They come in varied shapes and sizes, some are unimaginably open and some are rather constricted. There is something for everyone. The short ones can be visited in 5 or 10 minutes. While the more challenging ones will take hours. These will challenge the mental strength of any person that dares to go in them. But you come out a changed person, you understand more about yourself.
You cannot talk about Lava Beds without due attention to it's history. A rather sad history to say the least. After many disputes over land taken by settlers, in 1873 the US Army sent troops to relocate the Modoc Indians. Those that were still alive after the battle where forced to a reservation in Oklahoma, where disease and famine killed many of them.
References:
National Archives
National Park Service
Ice Fall. Towards the end of Crystal Ice Cave.
The Angel. Near the entrance of the cave right after the ice slope.
Setting up the strobes inside Catacombs Cave
Technology can be a real pain. Because of one reason or another the transceivers did not work as expected. The only way to make this last image possible was to use a slow shutter speed (1/10) and to trigger the strobes manually at the same time. Other shots were simply impossible to do. Humidity and low temperatures may have been behind these issues with the PW+II. In any case carrying all the equipment just to find out it was not going to work as seamlessly as expected was ma major disappointment.
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