The Lava River Cave

The morning of July 4th we started the reunion by hiking the lava river cave. It was formed by an underground river of lava thousands of years ago and is now an empty cave almost a mile long. It was discovered long ago because part of it collapsed leaving an entrance...it is said that Indians used the cave as a "refrigerator."






This is what the entrance looks like from a distance.





The cousins were excited to explore and many of them had never experienced a cave before.




There is a pathway to the entrance. It gets dark quickly and it also gets quite cold. We quickly put on jackets and got out our flashlights and lanterns.




Heading down into the cave.






The cave gets quite big in some spots...50-80 feet high and wide...kind of like a subway.

We stopped at one point and everyone turned off their light so that we could all experience darkness in a cave....we couldn't even see our hands in front of our faces.

Grandma and Great-Grandma really enjoyed the hike.

Grandpa brought up the rear to make sure we didn't leave anyone in the darkness.

My sister who planned the reunion....she did a great job!!

Half of our happy group!

My brother...there were a few spots we had to duck where the walls got too low. At the end you have to crawl at one point where it then opens up into one last "room."

What the "ceiling" looked like. It was very damp and humid.

This was the view of returning to the entrance after being in the dark. It was a welcomed sight!



After we came out of the cave, we had a picnic lunch in the forest.