05-13-13

Yesterdays drive took us east on I-40 to the Bellemont exit where we left the freeway and stopped for gas.

We left the gas station and drove west on a frontage road on the north side of I-40 until we came to forest road 171.

We turned north on 171 and followed it until we came to 222 where we turned east.

We took several roads that made a loop around a mountain and came back to 171. On this loop we passed another what appeared, be a blow down. It covered a vast area.

At first I thought it was a clear cut logging operation but the trees were not cut they were broken off high above the ground.

At one point I thought that it may have been a fire, or perhaps a fire then a blow down?

When we got back to 171 we turned north again. We saw a sign that said Lava River Cave 3 miles so we continued up the road and turned onto the road to the cave. When we got to the parking area we decided to have lunch before going into the cave.
After lunch we walked down the trail to the cave and started climbing in.

 

The entrance was very difficult to negotiate with large boulders to climb over.
Patti stopped just inside the opening.

I decided to go a little further down into the cave. It was very cold in the cave. There were even ice flows hanging on the walls and on the floor.

I continued down climbing over large rocks and boulders until I slipped on the ice and landed on my butt.
I shined my light down the cave and saw more large rocks, boulders and ice.

At this point I decided that it would be smarter for me to climb back out of the cave and save myself from more falls and possibly injury. After climbing back up over the rocks and boulders and ice flows, I was pooped.

I think some of my tiredness was due to the altitude which was over seven thousand feet.

We left the cave and drove back to 171 and turned north again. We drove around and explored several other roads.

Eventually we decided that it was time to head for home so when we got back to 171 turned south and drove for 20 miles back to I-40 and headed for home.

All the roads in this area are pretty easy. Most are suitable for 2 wheel drive cars.