Caldwell Butte, cave and cabin are located near the south boundary of Lava Beds National Monument, near Tulelake, California.

Lava Beds National Monument . . . The trail to Big Painted Cave and Symbol Bridge was the backbone of my explorations in this area southeast of Schonchin Butte in the Lava Beds National Monument.  The trail heads toward Schonchin Butte from the road to Skull Cave.  The Skull Cave Road is about 1.3 miles […]

Lava Beds National Monument . . . Lava Beds National Monument is located on the California-Oregon border south of Klamath Falls, Oregon, USA. The Monument offers two, world-class exploration opportunities. The first, that we will address in other articles, is exploration of the history of the Modoc Indian War – the last Indian war fought […]

Crater Lake . . . Crater Lake was formed in the largest known eruption of a Cascade Range volcano, Mount Mazama. The peak of Mount Mazama is estimated to have been about 12,000 feet in elevation before the massive explosion 6,865 years ago (based upon carbon dating).  That explosion moved 50 cubic kilometers of material […]

Overview From a distance – even a close distance, the South (or Lower) Klamath Hills don’t look like much.  Just a brown stretch of hills that rise abruptly from the floor of the Upper Klamath Basin.  Grass, sagebrush and the occasional juniper tree dot the landscape – an ecosystem the experts call “sagebrush steppe.”  On […]