Skull Cave - Lava Beds National Monument - Tulelake, CA
Posted by: 
condor1
N 41° 43.869 W 121° 30.648
10T E 623851 N 4620998
The Big Cave on Lava Beds National Monument, Tulelake, CA. Self guided and has NO LIGHTS or GUIDE LINES. You will be FREE CAVING.
Waymark Code: WMGNJ2
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 03/24/2013
Views: 8
Skull Cave
This is the big one at
Lava Beds National Monument. The entrance passage is impressively large. Available light photos can be taken in this passage, with little tiny people along the trail for scale. The cave gets vertical in the back. Bighorn sheep skulls and bones were once found at the bottom of these drops, along with other remains, including human. Today, stairways go down to the lower level where an ice floor can be viewed through a gate. In the 1960s, visitors were allowed out on the ice.
Skull Cave is accessed by a paved side road that ends in a parking lot next to the entrance. The pave road ends here but a dirt road continues from here as well.
Schonchin Butte is nearby.
J.D. Howard visited on March 12, 1920, and seems to have been pleased with the cave. It has size, depth, and multiple levels. Skull Cave is credited with a length of 1,000 feet. E.L. Hopkins first spotted the cave from the top of Crescent Butte. He explored it and named it as early as the 1890s.
To get to Lava Beds National Monument:
From the I-5 corridor, take U.S. 97 North at Weed to a right turn on California Hwy. 161, also known as Stateline Road, located just north of Dorris, CA and just south of the California-Oregon border. Brown highway signs mark turns leading to Lava Beds from U.S. 97 into the monument. Travel east on CA 161 through the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge to Hill Road. Turn right on Hill Road at the Westside Market. Travel south on Hill Road nine miles until you enter Lava Beds National Monument. You will pass the visitor center for the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges on your way.
From the Klamath Falls, Oregon area, take Oregon Hwy. 39 south approximately 15 miles until you see a brown highway sign for the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges. Follow this route by turning right (south) on Merrill Pit Road. Travel south approximately 2 miles until you reach Stateline Road 161. Brown highway signs mark turns leading to Lava Beds from U.S. 161 into the monument. Turn left (east), travel approximately three miles, and turn right (south) at Westside Market onto Hill Road. Travel south on Hill Road nine miles until you enter Lava Beds National Monument. You will pass the visitor center for the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges on your way into the monument.
Once you have arrived at the Visitor Center and registered and have paid the 7-Day $10.00 per vehicle fee as well as ensured you have the proper equipment.....The caves are not lighted and you will be free caving..... Take a hard hat and a couple sources of light with extra batteries.
Now to head to Skull Cave head west and then northwest on CA State Rd 10 for about 1.5 miles. You will see Lyons Rd on your right. Take Lyons Road for about 3/4 of a mile and you will see the parking area and the entrance to the cave on your left down a lightly steep path.
Again: There are NO lights in this cave and NO guide lines, so make sure you are prepared. This is not a guided tour so keep your orientation and don't get lost. Oh yes, lastly have fun visiting this cave.