Alternative Rosh Hashanah

Cinder Cones on the Horizon

2019-09-30 Monday

Today was Rosh Hashanah. The only time I remember not being home on Rosh Hashanah for the past 35 years or so, was in 2007. That year was our first cross-country RV trip, and we spent Rosh Hashanah in Yosemite National Park. It was a wonderful experience, and we've never forgotten it. Today was memorable also, and a worthy addition to our "alternative Rosh Hashanah experiences".

The day started with us waking extra early and immediately checking our campground for snow--we'd heard it might snow an inch or so overnight. No such happening, however-- we'd had rain, but there was not a trace of snow. In fact, when I took Cassie out to walk, I thought it felt almost balmy, and the sky had signs of blue in it! But I did see when I looked at the mountains surrounding us that in fact, they did have a covering of white. It didn't seem to be threatening us, however, and we ignored it.

One thing we had discussed last night with Adam was whether there was any recycling center in Klamath Falls. We've been shlepping a lot of aluminum cans and plastic water bottles with us for weeks, unable to find anywhere to recycle them. Turned out there was something called the BottleDrop where we could bring our stuff. So that was our first stop--it was only 5 minutes away (all of Klamath Falls is less than 10 minutes from any other part of it-- it's not a large city.) We parked in the large parking lot of a Fred Meyer store right behind the BottleDrop, and dragged in two large bags of flattened plastic bottles, and a bag of squashed cans. Turned out the cans had deposits on them in Oregon, and we got $3.70 back for turning them in! What a deal--we'd have PAID to be able to drop this stuff off! We investigated and discovered they also took cardboard and glass, so back we went to the RV and brought in a lot of cardboard and a few glass containers. Voila! Suddenly our shower is not full of trash!

From there, we headed south to Lava Bed National Monument. It was only about an hour drive away, and to get there, we crossed the state line into California. It turns out that when you cross a state line on a back road, there's no colorful "Welcome to California" sign waiting for you :(  I thought that was very unfair. But soon I was distracted by unusual black mounds in the distance. They sure looked like volcano cones to me!

The landscape changed, and we found ourselves driving along a gorgeous lake, Lake Tule, which signs told us was a wildlife preserve. There were a lot of birds on the lake--I even saw some pelicans! On the other side of the road, the rocks were rising up around us. Soon the lake side turned to cultivated land, but the rocks became even more jagged and unusual. And then suddenly, as we arrived at Lava Beds National Monument, all we saw were black rocks of lava all around us.

The landscape reminded us very much of Craters of the Moon, which we visited in 2011. But it's very different in some ways. Craters of the Moon had much less vegetation growing on the surface--we saw a lot of sage, and especially beautiful Juniper trees (which are all loaded with berries right now.) And the volcanoes are visible on the surface--we climbed up one of the cinder cones. The volcano which created this area was a different kind than the other. The area was formed by the Medicine Lake Volcano. Rather than erupting in explosions, it was "gentler", and erupted through vents in the surface, causing the lava to flow and form what they say is a "shield-like profile.)

I had a hard time understanding the surface convolutions, but what I did understand was that the lava created tunnels as it came out, and those acted like "arteries" to guide the lava as it left the interior. The walls of the tunnels cooled first, creating a sort of "tube" where the lava continued to flow. When it stopped flowing, the walls were still there and they are now caves which open up on the surface. There are more than 700 lava tube caves in the Monument, and a couple of dozen have been opened up to access by the public.

Joey reading an information panel in Mushpot Cave

 We stopped at the visitor's center, where I got a pin for my new collection, and talked to the ranger. He gave me a map, a list of which caves were the easy ones (they are divided based on level of difficulty to explore), and a cave permit. The small interpretive area was very interesting, to say the least, also (more about that in a minute.) It was already about 3:00, so we were anxious to go into one of the caves. We chose the Mushpot Cave, which is the easiest-- it is lit, and has a concrete floor, and interpretive panels to show you features of the cave as you walk through it. Nevertheless, it was exciting and fascinating, not least because Joe and I were literally the only ones in the entire cave! We read about the different types of lava flow, the different markings on the walls and ceilings, and the animals which live in the cave (pack rats, bats, and icky things like centipedes and scorpions.) We brought extra flashlights (recommended), but we still both managed to hit our heads in one particularly low area. We loved it, and I would have liked to try another cave, but Joe was ready to call it a day. It was pretty late, so that made sense.

Looking Down through Mushpot Cave

Another thing which made the area in general so interesting was its settlement history. Originally the area was the territory of the Modoc Indians. When we were driving in, we stopped at an overlook which also marked the spot of the final battle between the Indians the the US Army, which was trying to move them out of the area. The war lasted a number of months, because the Indians knew the land so well that they could avoid the army. The end came when the Indians themselves became divided, and one group guided the army to the stronghold where the Indians were encamped. There were fewer than 200 left in the end, and they were relocated to Oklahoma and their culture was mostly lost. ("Another proud moment in American history," was my husband's wry comment.)

Juniper Tree with Berries

 In the interpretive center, we learned that much of the parks infrastructure had been built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which lived at Gillem's Camp (which was near the National Monument entrance.) Sadly, during World War II, the camp was used as an interment camp for Japanese civilians. We also learned about that cultivated land we'd seen next to Lake Tule as we drove in. After WWI and WWII, the government had offered parcels of land to army veterans for farmland. The parcels were given out via lottery--which was held by drawing names of winners out of a large pickle jar! There was a replica of that in the interpretive center, along with other information about the settlement of the area around the National Monument. Much of that land had been wetlands, which were drained to create the farmland.

We decided to spend the night here, because it was too late to leave to drive toward Lassen National Volcanic Park, our next destination. Yes, we really are seeing a lot of volcanoes on this trip! The most interesting thing we learned-- until Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, the Medicine Lake Volcano erupted most recently of any in the lower 48 states-- it last erupted only 900 years ago! That's modern history! Scientists study the regrowth and changes at Lava Beds National Monument to learn what may happen in the future around Mount St. Helens. So each of these volcanoes is an ongoing learning experience.

Cassie contemplating the volcanic horizon

 Our Alternative Rosh Hashanah proved to be very interesting--we did not expect so much from this site. But we wished, in the end, that we'd gotten an early start to our day and gotten here earlier. There is a lot to see, and we plan to see a couple of more things on our way out tomorrow. Meanwhile, the campground is beautiful, with views of the surrounding area, and cost us a grand amount of $5.00. So you can't beat that for a lovely end to a lovely day.