Caves of Craters of the Moon

6/20/2014: 400 feet gained

A new experience for me. Four caves were accessible to the public and me. To get to the former lava tubes, one must travel across the barren landscape. A normally easy task with the relatively flat land, I noted the temperature rising on the blacked land. We arrived at the first cave. I can't really say it was a cave however due to when I climbed in I was met with a sign stating there was a rock fall near the entrance. Shining my light ahead I caught it and back out. Traveling a bit further we found a second, much larger but less accessible cave. I climbed through the first sky light and walked a couple hundred feet to where I found it to be very quiet and lonely. The sides dripped with former pot parks of where the less than viscous lava had once used the tubes to pressurize and flow with ferocity under ground and fire itself out of the ground when it hit a block. I came to the next skylight and found grandma on the cave floor and grandpa eying coming down. I tempted him to come and we decided to go . Despite my grandparents not being able to hike to my degree, they kept up as I twirled around and lightly jogged between both sides of the cave looking at all the geology of the area. We passed under another sky light and found a way out. After helping both grandparents up and crawling a bit more, we emerged in hell. We had found yourself in the middle of a 2,200 year old lava flow. Truly hell, as black and lifeless it could be, We eventually did find the route back to the junction with the main trail and I decided to forge on. My curiosity had been ticked by a cave said to have ice in its deep hollows. I found the yawning hole and drove in, crawling on my stomach for a good portion of the entrance, I found the temperature to be about 25-30 degrees. A very stark contrast to the 80 degrees and building temperature outside. I climbed through finding the ice and what not then went back outside to find another cavern. Stepping inside, I nearly took my ankles out twice, nearly stepping on what looked to be former fissures. Not that they'd do to much but I didn't want to risk it. I reached the end of the rock fallen cave and turned around. I approached into the sun and sauntered back through the eerily beautiful world.