Longmire Adventures: Lava River Cave

Every year Bob and I have the blessing of celebrating both our anniversary and Father's Day on the same weekend, and sometimes the same day!  I am so grateful for it and this year was especially fun.

Our last adventure day was a slow start.  I let the family sleep in and read my book with coffee in hand in the quiet of our little cabin.  I daresay there is nothing quite like that feeling of peace, quiet, coffee, and a really good book.

Once everyone was up and moving we had our breakfast, packed it all up, and said goodbye to our little hideaway in the mountains.  Our last adventure spot before heading back to the valley was the Lava River Cave.

Again, this little spot is an underrated gem of an adventure.  I had read articles about the lava river cave that is marked simply by a blip on the map, a small parking lot, 1 horribly smelly bathroom and 2 signs.  I mean it is quite literally back in the woods 4 miles off of a Forest Road, and the entrance was marked by a sign, and a pile of rocks.

So lets talk science.  What in the world is this thing? Its a 3/4 mile underground long tunnel cave that was formed hundreds of thousands of years ago when magma erupted out of the ground and formed a tube as it flowed and cooled.  I mean the science is way more involved, but here are a couple of graphics that helped me.

I guess in my mind I envisioned a cave where you could crawl down inside and see the tube then come out.  Little did I know that we were going to go on a 2 hour trip inside a pitch black lava formed tunnel.  The experience was unreal.

It was 90 degrees at the top of this thing.  Once you got right to the mouth of the cave the temps dropped by 50 degrees instantly.

And as you can see, the mouth is not far from the top.

We all should have had headlamps but thankfully the girls had bought flashlights and I had we had our phones.  I mean, there are zero lights down there.  You literally enter and walk at your own risk.  Thankfully there arent any ways to get lost so that helps.

We traversed the rocks on our way to the more level tunnel and were all absolutely astonished at what we were seeing and experiencing.  

Some sections of the tunnel were small and required some crawling, while other sections boasted 30 foot ceilings.

The poor flash on my camera was working extra hard to attempt recreation, but there was just nothing like seeing it in person with a light.

We stopped in one section of open tunnel and the acoustics were magnificent.  I of course sang "Ave Maria" and had a few fellow tunnel walkers grateful for the performance. So much fun.

We made it to the end to find a tiny little opening into another itty bitty space.  The hole from which the lava initially spurted out!

Bob, Evie, and Lily managed to squeeze themselves through the hole, but honestly, I didn't need to.

I was very content to let them have all of that experience and take pictures of it.  I am not a spelunker.....

The trip back was long and we all got tired and cold.  Working to navigate the uneven terrain with only so much light was tiring and we attempted to twist more than 1 ankle.  Thankfully we did make it out mostly unscathed!

We had chosen the perfect timing on the whole thing because the cave entrance was packed while we were crawling out.  It didn't seem that steep coming down, but man was this perspective amazing. 

The Lava River Cave was an absolute win.  It was an experience I will never forget and put such a fun bow on our wonderful adventure in Arizona!  I cannot wait for the next!

Longmire Adventures: Meteor Crater

We made it to the Crater!  Ever since moving here, seeing the huge Meteor Crater out in the desert has been high on Bob's bucket list.  I have really wanted to make it happen so our whole weekend was centered  around seeing this big massive dent!  It was even better because this day was our anniversary and it was great to celebrate doing bucket list stuff! I won't lie, the crater is pretty spectacular and really hard to capture in a photo.

The crater is literally out in the middle of no where.  I mean its completely desolate, and then you see this mountain rise out of the earth.  Its wild and amazing to thing about how much of our mountains and earth was shaped by the impact of meteors.  Geology is amazing.

Before touring the crater we rode the 4D ride in the museum.  The seats move and shake and it was a hit because we ended up doing it twice!

Meteor Crater was formed thousands of years ago when a huge chunk of iron (about 150 feet in diameter) impacted the earth at 26,000 miles an hour.  Barringer the guy who hypothesized the possibility of it being an impact crater as opposed to a volcanic crater spent the better part of his life, 25 years, digging a hole in the center of the crater  in the hopes of finding that massive ball of iron fully intact.  Little did he know that an impact of that magnitude nearly melted the entire ball upon entry and impact and flung all of the pieces and the earth thousands of feet out.  Some parts of the meteor were even found miles away from impact site.  Poor guy spent his whole life looking one place when he should have just been looking all the places!

The museum houses one of the largest pieces of the meteor and the girls were both awed by the opportunity to touch the meteorite!  I won't lie that it really was neat to have space and earth meet in this moment.  

We spent a good chunk of our afternoon at the crater, talking with the scientists, walking through the museum, playing with the meteor simulator and destroying earth (Evie's choice).  The whole experience was a blast.

We came back to our cabin the rest of the day for down time.  I love down time and it was lovely to just spend the evening together.

Even if it did end in a pile of tickles.  Our 17th anniversary ended exactly how it should have.  

Longmire Adventures; Walnut Canyon National Monument

Turns out, there is an amazing amount of awesome places you can see in Arizona.  I mean our state is full of really fun, eclectic, historical, and "who knew it" places. I really had so much fun researching and digging through all of the really popular spots to find the less travelled ones.  Walnut Canyon was a great stop for us as we began our day 2.

Walnut Canyon is just that...a Canyon where ancient Indian tribes used to live.  They would build their houses out of stone and mortar right under the ledges on the side of the canyon.  It was amazing to think of not only the sheer determination to survive, but the logistics around it.  Absolutely incredible.

To get to the canyon walkway you had to descend about 350 steps.  It was a really neat way to get to the canyon "island."  Once on the island walkway you were transported back to a neighborhood and could see across the canyon to other neighborhoods.

The girls were mesmerized by the size of the houses.  Each small area was only about 8 by 10 feet max and served as a families entire house.  And of course their front yard was a drop off.

The overhanging parts of the cliff were quite interesting because they also had tiny shells and bits of debris from years of settling and time.  Geology truly shows you the world from a different very long perspective.

There was one section of the trail that had been intentionally rebuilt with complete houses.  It was amazing to look inside the small door (Lily.....how small were these people?) and see how tiny and simple they lived.  

Walnut Canyon was absolutely a must see and I am so glad that we took the time.  Being able to compare all that we have with all that this ancient society didn't have is humbling.  We had a lot of great conversations and made some wonderful memories.