This was a surprisingly fun hike for our family (though not as fun as riding horses, for the record!) It's a little bit tricky to find, but if you take route 180 up through Flastsaff about nine miles past the turn off to the Snow Bowl, and then turn left on a dirt road (FR 245) until it makes a T with FR 171B, and then turn left again on that road for about a half a mile, you'll come to the short trail head that will lead you to this hole in the ground:
It's officially called the Lava River Cave, but locals just call it the Lava Tubes. You hike down 3/4 of a mile into a pitch black cave until it comes to an abrupt stop. I made the kids stop along the way and turn off their lights and be silent. It was heavenly silent blackness. I wanted to stay there alone for three or four hours. The picture below is a picture of the inside, but whoever took this picture had lights that were lots stronger than ours. We never saw this much of the cave at one time.
The caves stay a constant 34 degrees Fahrenheit year round. At one point we saw a group of young adults singing together (with someone on a guitar) Christian music. It was interesting, how close we had to get to hear them and how quickly the sound faded after we passed them. It's almost like the darkness eats up the sound faster.
It was a fun way to hike away two or three hours. It may have not been their absolute favorite activity while we were on vacation last weekend, but I think they'll remember this hike for a long time to come.
3 comments:
I had no idea about the lava tunnels and I can't count the number of times I've been in Flagstaff. How do you find all these fun things to investigate?
And you even gave us directions so we can find them ourselves! I especially like the family pictures. Those forests look like Northern Arizona!
Awesome.
Did you all of a sudden have a blogging flurry or have I been totally clueless? Either way, I'm excited about so many posts. Yay!
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