When you leave Crater Lake through the southern exit and head towards Lava Beds National Monument you end up going through small towns with a lot of farmland. At one point I thought maps was sending me down a farm driveway but Google came through and the funky little road took me to a slightly bigger road that went through Tulelake National Wildlife Refuge to Lava Beds.
Lava Beds is a supercool region created by half a million years of eruptions from a shield volcano. There are swaths of black lava with little vegetation, fields of sage and hundreds of lava tube caves. They are actively protecting the bats from White-Nose Syndrome and cavers should be prepared to offer up equipment for disinfecting. None of my stuff has been in any caves so I headed in to explore.
The monument has no restrictions on overnight parking and I saw no reason to rush through my visit. The advantage to staying put in a nice place is the spectacular sunrises and sunsets that just aren't the same when seen from a truck stop.
Truck stop also don't seem to have drawings and carvings from ancient peoples. The pictographs are within caves, protected from the elements and although there is a lot of speculation about sacred areas vs convenient place to post some graffiti, seeing the drawings is an amazing experience.
The petroglyphs are at a separate site on a rock that previously jutted out of the lake. The lake has been mostly drained for farming and the images are protected behind fencing instead of the lake.
Tule Lake was also the site of the Modoc War in 1872 as the indigenous peoples tried to protect their homeland from the settlers. They lost, but hiking through the fields dotted with lava formations, caves and hidden pits points out how the small band of resistors were able to hold out against the U.S. army for many months.
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