We planned to check out a couple caves near the Big Tubes trailhead but the road was in poor shape- half snow, half mud. Luckily the short road to the El Calderon trailhead was in good shape. Junction Cave was closed for hibernating bats, which left only Xenolith Cave as a potential cave trip. Within a few feet of the parking lot we found Junction Bridge and had a quick walkthrough before heading on down the trail. We passed between the Double Sinks, impressively large and deep lava tube collapses before carrying on to Bat Cave and Xenolith Cave. Xenolith Cave was supposedly the "hardest" of the four caves we had a permit to visit but the only one we currently had access to.
After a nice section of tube near the entrance, the cave brokedown a
short climb back into the main passage (the Large Intestine). This
portion of the tube had a really nice pahoehoe lava floor and some
granite xenoliths in the wall (hence the cave name). Continuing on we
had an option between a climbdown or a crawl and chose the crawl. This
led to a small room and several more crawls, one on top of the other. A
belly crawl of about 30ft led to a bit more passage (the Small
Intestine), which after another short climb came to a convincing end. The ceiling in the belly crawl and much of the uncollapsed lava tube had some nice lava drip formations. On the way back to the entrance we spotted some neat ice stalagmites which grow in the cave seasonally (frontispiece). I forgot how lustrous ice can be.
Once out we decided to continue around the loop trail where we got to see more great volcanic features- a lava trench (collapsed lava tube), cinder cone, and crater. Thanks to Pete for visiting us.
No comments:
Post a Comment