The Real Oregon

Just over the California border, south of the Oregon city of Klamath Falls, Lava Beds National Monument is a little known and fascinating part of the federal National Park system. Established in the 1920s, the monument contains an extensive system of lava beds resulting from an ancient shield volcano eruption. If that sounds like eighth-grade geology, take heart: the beds contain miles of lava tubes — long underground caverns — that the park service has minimally improved, making it safe and possible for amateur spelunkers to explore, equipped with little more than a good flashlight and a helmet of some kind. (Both are available at the visitor center.)

Wandering these lava tubes is a wild experience if you’ve never done any caving that didn’t involve a guide and a cavern with electric lights. Even though the tubes are pretty safe, and it’s difficult to get thoroughly lost, the first time you come to a fork in the pitch black, a quarter mile underground, you’ll feel your pulse start to beat a little faster. You can go for easy, stand-up walking tubes, or you can spend hundreds of meters duck-walking under a low ceiling. If you’re really determined you can crawl for long distances on your belly.

Lava Beds was also the scene of the tragic Modoc Indian war of 1872-73, in which Captain Jack and a band of renegade Modocs held off the U.S. Army for months by hiding out in the caves.