Lava Beds National Monument, CA/Crater Lake National Park

We left the wonders of playwrights to explore nature’s beauty.  Lava Beds is a stark but spectacular land at the border of Oregon and California.  The area is also the location of the Tule Lake Relocation Camp created to house Japanese-Americans during WWII.  The camp is only open on Saturdays so we were unable to tour it.

Lava Beds is riddled with more than 700 caves.  These require descending steep steps into cool darkness.

The park makes flashlights available. 

In increasing order of exploration, Anna Lee (1 cave), Jerry (2), and Jeff (more), we all found these fascinating in their stark beauty. 

 Anna Lee got a picture of one of the local cave residents who we think is a cave cricket (Dave?)

We had another disappointment.  We planned to join our friends from Washington and their grandchildren at Crater Lake.  What we did not know was that the park was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Parks this weekend.  The area was very crowded and we could not find each other.  We are sad to have missed them but we did enjoy some easy hikes in the park.  Pinnacles were formed by steam venting through stone and the stone becoming hard. 

 As the soft stone around it eroded away these other worldly formations were left.  The wind around the Pinnacles area produced some interesting photos.

The Castle Crest Wildflower Trail still has some lovely flowers blooming along its stone path.