Lava Tube Caves

We took off from the shop as soon as Mark got off work Wednesday night. Jake drove us up over the mountain through blinding late-season snow, and then it was a smooth cruise down Hwys 26 and 97 to Bend.

After a late-night snack and pitcher of local Deschutes beer at a sports bar in town, we made the short drive to near Boyd Cave and set up camp. It was after midnight and getting cold fast. We had a few PBRs looking at the bright stars and listened to the coyotes howling and yelping nearby. Then Jake got into his MSR Missing Link, Mark into his SD Meteor Light, and I crawled into my SD Clip Flashlight for the night.

My water bottle had a crust of ice on it Thursday morning. After coffee and breakfast, we strolled to the entrance of Skeleton Cave (closed for the winter to protect the bats), and then hit Boyd Cave entrance. Headlamps on, we explored the nooks and crannies of the cave, crawling over the sharp rocks as far as we could go.

Then we were off for Arnold Ice Cave. We had brought cramps along to negotiate the steep, icy descent into the cave, but found that the ice had completely plugged the opening. We only got about 15 feet in before we had to turn around. We had lunch on the hood of the car and then took a hike to see one of the Charcoal caves before getting getting back in the car for the long drive down to South Ice Cave.

We encountered a little snow on the road, and it was falling lightly as we sized up South Ice Cave. We explored the shorter stretch of the cave first, and then the bigger one. There were fabulous ice formation - stalagmites of ice growing up from the floor and sheets of icicles hanging from the ceiling. It was other-worldly.

The real Central Oregon cave season begins May 2, when most of the caves open up -- but we had a good time exploring the off-season caves.

Check out some photos of the trip here.