In this video I find some otherworldly obsidian boulders and then spend the rest of the day exploring one of the most interesting national monuments I’ve been to. (Click here if you can’t see the video below.)

Here’s my new little table (affiliate link).

GPS COORDINATES

* Glass Mountain area: 41.5873, -121.5099
* Campsite: 41.685969, -121.539865

THOUGHTS ON THE DIFFERENT CAVES

Here are all of the caves I explored on this trip, not all of which were covered in the video. Ones with an asterisk (*) were the really great ones that I’d go to if I were short on time.

• * Golden Dome – A long cave. It was in the shape of a figure 8 and had the most golden hydrophobic bacteria.
• * Upper Sentinel to Lower Sentinel – You go in one entrance, walk through a long tube with a couple of beautiful skylights, and then come out another entrance. Walked back to my car on the road.
• * Valentine Cave – Another long one with smooth floors. Very much like a subway tunnel. Twisty with lots of side passages to explore.
• Skull Cave – Very cool and very large opening area. That gets a star. But kind of lame going down to the blocked off ice area. Super super cold down there.
• Big Painted Cave – Some very faint gray pictographs. Eh. Not as good as…
• * Symbol Bridge – Really great pictographs. Striking. Neat connected cave/bridge feature.
• Merrill Ice Cave – No ice. Kind of lame. There was a viewing platform at the bottom of stairs, but I couldn’t see anything.
• Mushpot Cave – The only “developed” cave with lights in it. Not amazing, but fast to do, right next to the visitors center, and has some interesting and informative signs.
• Indian Well Cave – Standard, with an uneven floor that was fun. Halfway through you squeeze through an opening into the bottom of a dry sinkhole and then go back into the second, though shorter, part of the cave.
• * Heppe Ice Cave – No ice, but pretty darn neat. Pool at bottom, two cave entrances visible from there. Otherworldly.