Posted on 12/21/2022 2:55:08 PM PST by nickcarraway
Part of the adventure in luring your friends out to the high desert terrain in Northern California, where a valley floor spills from the northern backside of Mount Shasta, is that precious moment when they look at you as though you’ve led them into danger.
Having discovered Pluto’s Cave from a map, I was prepared for some sagebrush whacking. What I wasn’t prepared for was that reaching the trailhead required navigating a maze of dusty roads. The cave is considered an easy hike — no serious spelunking experience necessary — and located less than 20 minutes from Interstate 5.
Pluto’s Cave is a partially collapsed lava tube in the Klamath National Forest. The cave’s opening is estimated to be 10 feet high and 20 feet wide, with a depth of some 1,200 feet into the Earth’s abyss.
For a torrid summer day, a venture into the cool underbelly of Shasta was an ideal pursuit to beat the heat. The cave keeps a cool 50 degrees, regardless of what’s happening outside. I plotted the coordinates via Google Maps and set north. This would prove to be the first mistake.
Splitting from I-5 in the town of Weed is Highway 97. Part of the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway, the route earns its name for how it carves along the Cascade Range, where volcanoes are numerous. Charred residue from the 2014 Boles Fire was visible during the highway’s initial 10 miles.
We cut off from the highway and, per Google Maps’ insistence, I guided us through a rural residential area. It was the type of outback neighborhood that doesn’t appear on Google’s Street View. Front gates have convincing signs that trespassing would be a fool’s errand, and no one in their right mind would think to canvas this outpost to hawk some solar
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Never made it there… I’ll have to take the granddaughters there next time we visit.
California will soon make that off limits. Too dangerous and scary.
Just check for earthquake activity prior to entering it.
Is it safe to go down there? Apart from natural dangers, might those caves also attract druggies, gangstas, and other lowlifes?
“Pluto’s Cave is a partially collapsed lava tube in the Klamath National Forest.”
Definitely sounds worth a visit!
Humanity may build shelters in Lunar and Martian lava tubes in the not too distant future.
If we make it that long....
Way out there? It's more than 275 miles from SF and 225 miles from Sacramento. Now, there are drug plantations in national parks, but they stay off the grid.
Whoa…
Watch out for the Lumarians. They live in there. Some hippy saw them and told me about it when I was having lunch in Weed.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/mount-shasta-spirituality
Tortured my wife and daughter going down there. They hated it. I loved it. Especially the ceremony roster painted on the wall from 100+ years ago. NOT in a friendly neighborhood if those tall green mesh fences mean anything.
My Boy Scout troop camped out in Cumberland Caverns in Tennessee. That was a fun trip.
Since it’s CA, I wonder who the cave goers file lawsuits against when things go bad.
The first Boy Scout campout I ever went on was near Mount St. Helens, in 1966. We went through Ape Cave, the longest lava tube in the lower 48. Went there again a few years later on a field trip from the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
There are lava tubes all over the place in the West, pretty much anywhere there was basaltic volcanism. Most are quite small and don’t go very far, but they’re not rare.
The guys in the posted story strike me as total idiots to go into a cave with no light source besides their cell phones. I won’t go into a cave or mine workings without about three spare flashlights besides my headlamp.
That overhead pic of Mt. Shasta makes it look like a monstrous zit.
I have actually been to the top of Mt. Shasta. If you walk the ridge to the peak to the north, you can warm yourself by some fumaroles. In fact there is a story about John Muir and his crew getting caught in a storm but saving themselves by gathering around them to keep warm. Another story is they hauled some fat lady up to the too on a mule and the poor mule died hauling her fat arse up and down the mountain.
I did not find any pus filled zits on the top. Maybe it was because I hiked it in July and it was a glorious warm day....
Been to Subway Cave, near Mt. Lassen, more than once.
Also wandered through a couple of lava tube ice caves, in Lava Beds Nat Mon.
Never heard of this cave.
60+ years ago that whole area was damned easy to get lost in. Forest service maps showed the roads, but didn’t number most of them; and the ones they did number, typically didn’t have corresponding number-signs posted on them.
I’ve been caving a few times in my youth. And, not in the commercial, guided-tour caves either. However, this is one of those mysteries that should remain just that.
No way in heck would I attempt a cave such as this one!
Nice touch!
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