Road Trip — Lassen NF Subway Cave

Posted by Karen on 05-Aug-2006

(Click photo for all 51 photos)

After lunch at the fish hatchery, we headed back up the highway for a bit and then took off onto the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway to wind our way through volcano country and into Oregon.  We took a rest break at the Deer Hollow Nature Trail and then continued on to the The Hat Creek Rim Region region, were we found the Subway Cave and explored it.  It took me a few tries, but I eventually figured out how to get a decent picture in the pitch black!  The cave is a lava tube that was formed thousands of years ago.  During a volcanic eruption, the upper level of a lava flow cools and hardens, but the inside is still hot and flowing.  After it eventually drains, a tube is left and when a portion collapses on the surface, it opens up a cave for us to explore.  We made camp  at the Hat Creek Campground in the Lassen National Forest that night.