Lava Tubes

What can I say? I have lived in Flag for 3+ years and have never known about the lava tubes. I blame it on my friends that never told me about them J. Anyways, my dear friend Janina came over to watch the kids so we could go to these tubes. For those of you that don’t know, here is a little about them.

This mile-long lava tube cave was formed roughly 700,000 years ago by molten rock that erupted from a volcanic vent in nearby Hart Prairie. The top, sides and bottom of the flow cooled and solidified first, after which the insides of the lava river continued to flow emptying out the present cave.

There are small wave-like undulations in the floor are the remains of ripples frozen in the last trickle of molten rock that flowed from the cave. Stone icicles hanging from the ceiling show where a final blast of volcanic heat caused the rock to partially re-liquefy and drip.

The cave is as cool as 32-42° even in summer, and you may even find some ice inside. Lumbermen working for the Saginaw and Manestee Lumber Company discovered Lava River Cave about 1915 and homesteaders are said to have visited lava River Cave sometime around the turn of the century. According to historians, homesteaders would collect large quantities of ice from the cave. The ice was used for refrigeration, cooling drinks and maybe even to help create a rare summer treat- ice cream.

Here are just a few pics of us and the couple that went with us. Greg and Chelsea are the younger versions of Pat and me. They are great!!! So enjoy and keep it in mind that if you are ever here you NEED to go there.

The picture above is the mouth. A little intimidating at first but well worth it.
This is a side shaft that we all went in to. It required the army crawl and what not but it was really cool
At the end of the main tube is a little shaft that Pat had to try out.
This is Pat going into the small shaft

Below is our great friends Greg and Chelsea and us. The other couple is a mini version of Pat and myself.

It is hard to tell but the tube comes to a part where you have to turn left or right.