Mushpot Cave - Lava Beds National Monument - CA
N 41° 42.817 W 121° 30.518
10T E 624064 N 4619054
Mushpot Cave is one of hundreds of lava caves that lie within the Lava Beds National Monument (park fees may apply in season) and can be explored near the Lava Beds Visitor Center, which provides flashlights and hard hats for rent to visitors.
Waymark Code: WMFG05
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 10/14/2012
Views: 8
These words taken from a sign introducing you to Mushpot Cave when you first enter:
THE MUSHPOT
This upstream end of the Mushpot tube was blocked by a jam of solidified lava. Lava continued to flow under the blockage, bubbling up at the mushpot formation on your left. The smooth, pasty lava from the mushpot is the most recent flow in the cave.
Shorelines along the walls here show that earlier flows reached higher levels. One of them overflowed the tube and spilled out onto the ground through the skylight above you.
Mushpot Cave is one of hundreds of caves that you can visit at the Lava Beds National Monument. Visitors to any cave within the Lava beds National Monument need to be careful of spreading White Nose Syndrome, a devastating fungal disease spread to bats. Visitors to caves within the National Monument can get screened at the visitor center (and also nearby Mushpot Cave) and obtain a screening pass that they can put in their car to show they've been screened. Also, any visitors from the Eastern U.S. and Canada should leave their cave and mining equipment at home, since the fungal disease is most prevalent in those areas of the country.