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Right before Dave and I got married, we camped at Lava Beds National Monument for a week. This is a spectacular park located in extreme northeast California. Its high desert location was extremely appealing, as was its remoteness. All photos on this page were take with a Canon T70 35 mm camera. Larger images are available by clicking on the thumbnails.
Dave and I left late, so we passed by Mt. Shasta on Highway 97 in late afternoon. The mountain was shadowed by cloud while the plain in front of it was in sun.
		Highway 97 is rather spectacular. This photo was shot from the same spot as the one of Mt. Shasta, above.
Near the Oregon border, we turned off Highway 97 to Highway 161. This is a shot af dusk looking down that road. Nice lack of traffic!
		After driving a short way down 161, we entered the Klamath Wildlife Refuge. As it got dark, we saw eyes staring at us on the road. We stopped, and a family of raccoons crossed. I took this photo of the sky to the west immediately afterwards.
We arrived at Lava Beds quite late, and immediately set up camp. The next morning, I was greeted with this view to the north. Some people consider this desolation; I think of it as paradise.
		Lava Beds is full of cinder cones. To the east of the campground were a trio of small cones called the "Three Sisters". Past them in the photo against the far hills are the small towns in the area.
Dave is amateur radio operator W6PV, and the trip gave him an opportunity to operate on batteries in an environment free of electrical noise. With only a few watts of power, Dave talked to other operators around the world.
		Lava Beds has over three hundred lava tubes scattered over the park. This is the entrance, seen from the inside, to the one called Indian Well. Some tubes are over a mile in length.
Lava Beds is known for its flowers. We arrived in August, too late for most of them, but some, like this Blazing Star, were in full glory.
		Rabbitbrush is a common sight here. I photographed some of it next to Desert Paintbrush near our camp. In the background are Crescent and Schonchin Buttes.
Schonchin Butte is perhaps the most recognizable landmark in the park. It rises alone from the plain, and is topped by a lookout tower. Dave and I hiked to the butte one afternoon.
		It's a steep hike to the top of the butte, but the view is worth it. Here's a view of the lookout tower on top of a lava plug, with blazing star in the foreground.
Gazing to the west from atop Schonchin Butte, one is greeted with this view of Mt. Shasta. A line of black collapsed lava tubes is visible in the foreground.
		In the town of Newell are the remains of the Tulelake Internment Camp, a concentration camp used for persons of Japanese descent during World War II. Most of the barracks were converted into local housing after the war.
Near the wildife refuge are the remains of another camp. This one was used to house German prisoners-of-war. They were literally "farmed-out" to local homesteaders to pick crops.
		Some of the backroad sights around Lava Beds are quite spectacular.
Lava Beds was the site of the infamous Modoc War of 1872-1873. Captain Jack and a band of less than a hundred Modocs held off a U.S. Army unit of more than a thousand soldiers for six months. Most of that time, the Modocs occupied the "stronghold", an area of very rough lava. This picture shows a view from the area now known as Captain Jack's Stronghold.
		From the Department of Redundancy Department, we have a sign on the road into the Monument proudly declaring the obvious. Schonchin Butte is middle-left.
I decided to take a couple of photos by the moonlight to see how they would come out. It certainly seemed dark for the photos, but they came out rather bright. They look oddly un-focused, because it was windy and foreground plants moved during the exposure. Off in the distance, past the Three Sisters, are the lights of Newell and Tulelake.
		On the last day of our trip, I decided to climb Caldwell Minor, a small cone next to Caldwell Butte. After getting back to camp, I took this photo of the sunset on Caldwell Butte.

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