Lava River Cave

After visiting Lava Butte at Lava Lands south of Bend Oregon, we headed for nearby Lava River Caves.  These caves resulted from lava flows in the Newberry Volcano complex which includes cinder cones like Lava Butte.  The youngest lava flows in the area date to about 7000 years ago (not long after Crater Lake formed from Mount Mazama about 7700 years ago).  This lava cave is about a mile long and it is well visited, including a ranger guided tour of most of its length.

The entrance to the cave sits in a depression that is maybe 200 meters long with entrances at both ends and the area in the middle is a collapsed section of the cave that is overgrown with plants taking advantage of the relatively damp and cool environment compared to the surrounding landscape.  This image was taken with my 18-250mm Sigma lens at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/40 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 400.

Looking down into the cave entrance, it is surprisingly large with lots of collapsed rocks around the entrance but a reasonable path for visitors.  This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/64 seconds at f/4.5, ISO 1600.

The view back to the entrance from about 100 feet into the cave.  This image was taken at 18mm focal length with an exposure of 1/40 seconds at f/3.5, ISO 6400.

Another view back towards the entrance from farther inside the cave.  My Canon 70D did a great job with a high ISO setting in the relatively dark cave.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 1/10 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 6400.

The ranger guiding us through the cave stops to talking about the large ceiling lava tube with high water marks on walls etched by lava flowing through the cave.  You can also see the change in character of the marks from top down to the floor.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye lens with an exposure of 1/10 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 3200.

 Our guide uses his headlamp to show off the huge size of the cave here with about a 40 foot tall ceiling.  This image was taken with my 10mm lens and an exposure of 1/4 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 3200.

About 0.8 miles into the cave is one of the least disturbed sections of floor, though it was damaged by early visitors, it is not as badly damaged.  This section is called "Sand Gardens".  It is mostly sediment from deposits that entered the cave long after the lava flowed.  This image was taken with my 10mm fisheye and an exposure of 1/16 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 6400.