Our latest caper was a jaunt down to California to visit the Lava Beds National Park. Wows were in order. The drive alone was fantastic. We passed by Klamath falls and spied a lake full of white Pelicans. I hope I am not alone in my false assumption that Pelicans are an ocean thing. There were serenely floating clouds of them all over the lake. Later, we passed through a beautiful wetlands nature preserve full of even more ducks and the scattered glitter of water sparkling between thick reeds. It was surprisingly close and a fascinating juxtaposition to our ultimate goal.
Driving up the park the world was broken and black. Chunks of lava rock covered the ground turning the terrain into the landscape of Mordor. The main attraction however were the caves and lava tubes formed centuries ago by flowing lava. The walls looked like they were suspended in the very motion of molten dripping; lava trapped in a state of cool dark solidity. Several of the caves were closed to accommodate the maternal colonies of bats that roost there. We did spot one solitary bat that shuffled in our flashlight's glow as if to shoo away the silly creatures that didn't realize it was day and time for sleep. We quietly and carefully left the cave to give him space. There were, however, a dozen other opportunities to test our fear of small dark spaces. It is amazing to feel ones instincts take over and refuse you another wayward step into the dark as the light from the entrance recedes and succumbs to the darkness. Our favorite cave was appropriately named Sunshine cave and had intermittent patches of sunshine to relieve the darkness. The scenery around the caves was almost identical to the setting for my childhood, complete with sagebrush, junipers, and bright golden chamisa. It was so nice to smell the tang and earthiness of home and it mellowed my homesickness.
Love,
The Hedgehog
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