hikespeak

The Big Island of Hawai‘i is a dynamic land, where you can find a lava tube on the edge of the island's main city. An 1881 lava flow from Mauna Loa stopped just short of Hilo. Venture up and down a lava tube created by that flow. Enter through a collapsed skylight at Kaumana Caves Park and start exploring. While the entire tube may measure over twenty miles long, visitors can expect to... Read more.

A list of things for hikers to do on the Big Island of Hawai‘i includes: walking across a lava field, exploring a cave, looking for petroglyphs, seeing fishponds created by early Hawaiians, and taking a time-out by tide pools in a beautiful bay. Check off everything on that list with one visit to Kalahuipua‘a Historic Park and Fishpond Preserve. A loop around coastal Kalahuipua‘a... Read more.

The Cascade Range is home to many caves including volcanic lava tubes and glacier ice caves. The Guler Ice Cave south of Mount Adams offers a sample of both. Through the early summer this cave contains impressive ice features like frozen stalactites and stalagmites. You will see the most ice if you visit in April and May. As the season warms the cave loses its ice, but remains fun to... Read more.

Lava River Cave is the longest lava tube in Oregon and is fascinating to explore. Put fresh batteries in your flashlights and head to Newberry National Volcanic Monument, which is in Deschutes National Forest just a dozen miles south of Bend. Walking through Lava River Cave, you will see wild features left behind by volcanic eruptions 100,000 years ago. After a mile in the dark, venture... Read more.

One of the coolest things to do anywhere there are lava flows is hike through lava tubes. This makes Caves Trail the most exciting hike in Craters of the Moon National Monument. The 1.6-mile hike visits four lava tubes, that each provide a unique experience. A sign at the trailhead explains: The Craters of the Moon landscape is more than just surface volcanic features. Below ground there... Read more.

Do you want to go on a long hike in a dark tunnel? Ape Cave is the place. Ape Cave is one of the longest lava tubes in the world, measuring approximately 2.5 miles from end to end. Hikers may travel unguided through the lava tube. Make just a few preparations and Ape Cave will deliver a one-of-a-kind adventure. From the cave's main entrance, visitors have two options: Head down to... Read more.

Trail of Two Forests offers a window into two time periods of forestation shaped by nearby Mount Saint Helens. The current forest is obvious - moss, fern, trees, and fighting shrubs that have regrown over lava that covered this land approximately 2,000 years ago. The second forest is ghosts of trees that once stood here. As slow-moving molten lava cooled, it surrounded trees and began to... Read more.

A field of cinder cones stands out dramatically from the surrounding Mojave Desert between the city of Baker and Kelso Depot Visitor Center in Mojave National Preserve. Within the lava field is a short trail leading to a tube formed long ago by molten lava. A ladder takes hikers down into the tube where skylights (holes in the rock ceiling) illuminate a subterranean world. From the... Read more.