<--Previous  Up  Next-->



In Lava Beds National Monument (Northern California), this is the "Hopkins Chocolate Cave" trail, which is a cave and tunnel created when red hot lavas flowed underground. Once the lava drained away, this lava tube cave was left behind. There are over 500 such caves known to exist in Lava Beds National Monument (some are over a mile long), with new ones discovered each year. On the floor, you can see some solidified lava...although it looks like sloppy mud, it's actually solid rock (before it solidified, it probably *did* have the consistency of sloppy mud....just very *hot* sloppy mud). More nice dripstone and lavacicles on the ceiling and walls. (09/30/2004)