Subway Cave & Burney Falls 6.30.08

After another great campfire breakfast, we took off to Subway Cave, a lava tube-like cave formed about 20,000 years ago. The roof of the cave partially collapsed revealing about 1/3 of a mile of a lava tube cave.



We entered through the 'Devils Doorway', checked out stubtoe hall, the wind tunnel (where the walls & ceilings narrow), lucifer's cul-de-sac, the sanctum (the largest area in the cave with ceilings of 17 feet & over 20 feet wide), even some lava bubbles at the end. The thickness of the roof was between 8 and 24 feet! The cave was cool - around 46 degree year round except for outside where it was in the 90's. The plants & trees around the cave & above it were beautiful.







Inside it was total darkness & we took our headlamps with us. A group leaving just ahead of us only took one flashlight and their batteries went bad...they had to feel their way out! They said it was spooky.



From there we continued North to the McArthur Burney Falls Memorial State Park to see Burney Falls, a 129 ft spring fed waterfall.



The water is a cool 42 degrees year round & comes surging over both the top & also from springs in the rocks across the face of the waterfall. They estimate that 100 million gallons of water cascade over the falls everyday. There was even a turtle swimming in the rocks at the bottom of the falls. I love turtles... :-)



We took the short, 1 1/2 mile hike down & around the falls, then drove down to Britton Lake for a PB&J lunch.



After relaxing at the lake for a bit, we deove back to camp, showered (25 cents a minute!), read, dinner, fire, etc. It's a beautiful night and the campground is nearly full! Surprising for a Sunday night when most people bail. The only thing we can come up with is people have taken this entire week off for the 4th of July weekend.

Michael has somehow lost his shampoo & soap, claiming to have left it right on the seat of the Jeep. We've had a standing joke since leaving the Redwoods where a certainl ill-fated carton of eggs was accidentally left on the running boards of the Jeep and didn't make it back to camp with us... So that is the only thing we can recon...it must have been left on the running boards somehow. How they got there, only he knows... haha.

More to follow!
Rene