Lava Beds National Monument, California [UNITED STATES]

Lava Tube Cave

After seeing Mount Shasta, you really should push on to the Lava Beds National Monument, which commemorates a war between the US and Modoc Indians on the far northern border of the state. Carved out of the huge Modoc National Forest, it’s actually a series of volcanic caves you can explore and huge black lava flows with a history as violent as the natural forces that created them.
Lava Beds is one of the most remote, forgotten and beautiful of California’s parks, with pungent yellow rabbit-brush blooming around the burnt rocks in autumn. It’s in the heart of Modoc country, a desolate outback where cowboys still ride the range, and where, as the territory of one of the last major battles with the Native Americans, there’s still a suspicious relationship between the settlers and the native peoples.
Today the Lava Beds region is inhabited only by wild deer and three million migrating ducks, which easily outnumber the trickle of tourists that make it this far. To the west and north, the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge spreads over the border into Oregon. This stop on the Pacific Flyway draws birders and hunters alike, hoping to catch sight of a rare eagle among the millions of migratory guests.