Page 1 4 C)|)ThC'C'I& te T r= -August 1 5, 20i 2
J}v00n heal:'s on, go ,J00own under in Central Oregon
My two nephews from Mis-
soula, Mont. are visiting for a week
and after a few days of hot hiking we
decided to head underground.
Few places on earth are as dark
and quiet as the inside of a cave.
There's a kind of impenetrable dark-
ness and total silence. When we
flicked off the lights, we were en-
gulfed by the darkness. Not the kind
you might expect on a moonless
night; there were no stars, no distant
lights. The darkness was absolute,
total. We could not even detect our
hands a few inches from our faces.
There are literally hundreds of
lava tubes in Central Oregon. The
Deschutes National Forest has more
caves on it than any national forest
in the country - about 400, although
most people only know about the
more popular ones.
The first of the day's caves for
us was Lava River Cave, the longest
lava tube in Oregon at almost a mile.
In places the cave is 58 feet high and
50 feet Wide.
Thousands of years ago, lava
flowed from the flanks of New-
berry Volcano, creating a channel.
The sides of the channel eventually
Scott Staats
crusted over, forming roof, while
the fluid lava continue, t to flow. A
hollow tube was left after all the lava
drained out.
Lava River Cave gently slopes
downhill toward the Deschutes Riv-
er. At 1,500 feet in, Highway 97 is
about 50 feet above the roof of the
cave. Much of the cave's floor is cov-
ered with sand. It was once thought
that an ancient river flowed through
the cave, hence its name. The sand
did get into the cave by water but not
from a river.
Sand on the ground above the
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Spelunkers enter the Lava River Cave, south of Bend.
cave worked its way into cracks
and was carried down into the cave,
grain by grain, from the movement
of water. Some sand could have di-
rectly got into the cave through larg-
er cracks and from the mouth. This
process would have taken thousands
of years.
At the end of the cave is a sand
plug. No one knows how much far-
ther the cave goes past here. Two
people dug out the last section back
in the ,1930s but finally gave up.
From the entrance to the sand plug,
the cave drops gradually about 200
feet in elevation.
Halfway into the cave is a sec-
tion known as "Two Tube Tunnel."
Here, a smaller tube within the larger
tube runs about 100 feet. Volcanic
stalactites known as "lavacicles"
hang from the cave's ceilings and
walls.
Collapses in lava tubes can oc-
cur from cooling and shrinkage after
the lava flows out, from freezing wa-
ter that dislodges rock or from earth-
quakes. Without these collapses, the
caves would not be discovered. From
the entrance of Lava River Cave, the
main tube heads northwest for about
a mile. The section to the southeast
continues for another 1,560 feet but
is closed to the public due to loose
rock.
Bats use Lava River Cave and
several other caves in the area for
hibernating during the winter. Most
are out by this time of year. Do not
disturb any bats that you happen to
come across.
After being in the cave for an
hour or two, coming back to the
warm surface feels like walking from
winter right into summer.
Our next stop was Boyd Cave,
a lava tube 1,880 feet long. As we
headed down a set of metal stairs we
were immediately greeted with cool
air hitting our faces. When warm air
hits cooler air, the end result is mois-
ture. This accounts for all the inter-
esting and unique vegetation at the
mouth of the cave, which creates its
own mini-ecosystem.
No matter the temperature out-
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side, the lava tube remains a steady
45 degrees year round, so be sure to
dress warmly and wear a sturdy pair
of hiking boots. A headlamp and a
small flashlight are suggested, and
watch for low-hanging rocks if you
don't want to come back out with a
lump on your head. There are a few
collapsed sections that make for
more difficult walking.
These Central Oregon lava
tubes have quite a history. They
were first used by Native Americans
and later by white settlers as refrig-
erators• Remnants of whiskey stills
have been found in some. The gov-
ernment has even looked at a few of
the caves for use as bomb shelters.
There were a few places where
all of us had to get on our bellies and
crawl through smaller passageways.
Anyone suffering from claustropho-
bia may want to remain in the larger
portions of the caves. Through these
small openings, we could feel the
air blowing by us. As the barometric
pressure changes outside, the air will
move in and out of the lava tubes.
It's almost like the caves are alive
and breathing.
There's a spider-like creature
that calls the cave home. It's called
a harvestman and is very similar to
a daddy long-legs. The harvestman
is not a tree spider; it has 10 legs,
with the front two used to capture its
prey. We did spot one toward the end
of the cave.
We also saw some rootlets
hanging down from the roof of the
lava tube, which were most likely
from large ponderosa pines. The
cave floor at the entrance is about 30
feet below the surface while the end
of the cave is about 60 feet below the
surface.
To reach Lava River Cave, go
12 miles south of Bend on Highway
97. The turnoff to the cave is about
two miles past Lava Lands Visitor
Center.
To get to B0yd Cave, take Knott
Road at the south end of Bend and
go east 1.3 miles, then take a fight
on China Hat Road. This road turns
into Forest Road. 18. Go 8.1 miles
and take a left on Forest Road 1819-
242. Boyd Cave is only a few hun-
dred yards down the road. The road
passes through the Skeleton Fire,
which burned 17,000 acres in August
of 1996.
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Scott Staats is a full-time outdoor
writer who lives in Prineville.
