I went with my Boy Scout Troop to the Lava Beds National Park in Tulelake, CA from November 15 to 16th. We arrived at the campsite around 10:30am and set up camp in the wind and rain, and shortly after we got everyone's shelters set up (mix of tent campers, hammock campers, and one guest family in a trailer), the rain and wind died down. We had lunch, then headed off to the visitors center before heading into some caves.
Due to the loose soil, and wind, we couldn't get our stakes to hold, so a few of us ended up using large rocks and tree stumps to tie off our rain flys.
Crawling around the caves is a blast. They stay around 55* F most of the time, so most of the day the caves are warmer than the surface temps.
The boys played Hide and Seek in the "Catacombs" cave (they buddied up, and went hiding and seeking in pairs), the adults held the perimeter of the playing field so we wouldn't lose any boys, and they played for a couple of hours.
We also visited a few other caves, saw the ice that formed in a few of them, and had an all around great time.
The night time temps got down to 14* F, but aside from a few chilled noses, nobody had any complaints about the cold and sleeping.
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