Flagstaff, AZ is the most underrated place ever. I feel like since it’s so close to Sedona, it gets overlooked and it becomes so easy for people to miss all of the cool things here. In addition to the bazillion archeological sites that you can visit, there’s also so much interesting evidence of geothermal/volcanic activity.

We re-visited this area in April 2025, and had been in Yellowstone in September 2024 learning about everything geothermal-related and falling in love with it all. So to come back here with that knowledge and truly understand what we were looking at… it was too cool.

After we went geocaching in/around the inactive fumarole near Sunset Crater Volcano, I figured that was the coolest and most random thing we’d do on the trip. I was super wrong.

First of all – before delving into the forest to find Lava River Cave, we stopped in the suburban part of Flagstaff for more (surprise) geocaching. We ended up in this random person’s front yard…

Which is always hilarious and somewhat embarrassing haha.

It was a little adventure on a dirt forest road to get here, and there was random evidence of snow everywhere. I was glad to be in an SUV for the roads, but there were plenty of people navigating in regular cars and doing just fine on the road. There’s absolutely no cell phone signal out there whatsoever. When we come back, I think we’d camp in the area a bit – there are plenty of established fire rings right off the road that you can dip in to.

We arrived at the trailhead and were surprised to find a pretty large parking area and plenty of other people there already. (There’s also a bathroom, yay!) We ended up walking to the cave alongside a dad/son combo who were also out-of-towners and exploring it for the first time like us. We ended up casually spotting each other for the initial climb into the cave and we were all surprised by how icy the entrance was. When we got settled in and away from the ice, we exchanged taking photos for each other. I just love those random fleeting wholesome experiences with strangers, ya know?

As you might guess, inside of the cave was completely pitch black and without any natural light sources whatsoever. We were wearing headlamps and using flashlights, and we brought back ups just in case something happened. You definitely don’t want to get stuck down here without any way to see. And like I said, there’s no cell signal above ground on the road so there certainly isn’t any down there underground.

It was also super cold down there and I wouldn’t have minded having another layer on. Crazy to think that sunlight has never touched it since it’s creation 650,000 and 700,000 (!!!!) years ago.

Lava River Cave was created during a volcanic eruption, the lava flowed and the top, bottom, and sides became solid/dried while the centered was super hot and continued to flow – so it was like a drinking straw that had liquid going through it, which created the tube that we ended up walking through. How insane is that?

Because the cave is dried lava rock, the ground is very sharp, rocky, uneven… every uncomfortable adjective you got. We came down in tall hiking boots and I don’t think there’s any other way to do it. We made sure to walk super carefully either way – imagine twisting your ankle or falling in a dark cave, no thanks.

When we first entered, there were probably about a dozen people keeping us company. Mostly couples of parents with their kids under age 10-ish. As with any other trail, the longer we walked the farther we got from everyone until eventually we didn’t cross paths with anyone else on our further journey inward, our our return journey outward.

I’ve watched WAY too many horror movies in my life, so it was super easy to become sketched out and nervous in here if I allowed my mind to trail off. Ike really wanted to know what it would be like it we turned off our lights for a minute and I was absolutely having no parts of that haha.

We eventually came up to a split in the tube, and really only one of the sides went anywhere. Looks pretty spooky though, amiright?

Giant crack in the ground, big ol’ coral-like boulders of lava chunks… ducking through a lava tube… all the things.

When the cave’s ceiling became too low to crouch under, we chose to turn around the way we came. Then we just took the rest of our time lollygagging and taking a million photos of the inside. I was really surprised that we didn’t come across any animals, bugs, creepy crawlies…

And like I said before, I was on the verge of allowing myself to become scared of the dark so I didn’t even have the guts to review any of these pics until we got above around, in case I’d see something in the flash that I couldn’t see with my eyes haha ugh. I mean, you’ve seen the Descent and As Above So Below too… right?

It was nice to have the place to ourselves, especially when we got back to the entrance and dealt with the ice again. It’s a lot easier when you don’t feel like you’re holding someone else up. I wasn’t expecting to see icicles down here.

I really appreciated that the entrance has a rope to help you navigate too. I’d never seen that before (not that I’ve ever climbed into a cave before…) and it felt even more sturdy because it was partially encased in ice too. Not goin anyyywhere.

We spent a little over an hour in there and it was just surreal.

You know I always gotta show gratitude to the toilets managed by the Parks and Forest Services, respectfully. I love you guys.

It was 4:30pm-ish when we emerged, so that was perfect timing to head out and get back on the (super scenic top 10 best roads ever) 89A and head into Sedona while the sun began to set.

We arrived at our home for the night at the Wildflower Inn at Bell Rock. It’s outside the main buzz of downtown Sedona and it was actually such a nice place. We always choose pretty affordable places to stay, so it’s always a great relief to find places like this who still obviously take a lot of pride in their rooms. You know what I mean? The tub next to the bed was a cute touch, and our misadventures with figuring out how the jets worked gave us maaanyyy giggles later.

We went into main Sedona for a bit to grab a bite to eat at a Mexican restaurant, then holed up for the night to get a good rest before planning to wake up super super early to get the Sedona Shuttle for Soldier’s Pass & Seven Sacred Pools the next morning. We had such a nice full moon this night too.

Learn more about Lava River Cave:
https://www.flagstaff.com/lava-tubes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava_River_Cave_(Arizona)

More about lava tubes via NPS:
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/caves/lava-caves-or-tubes.htm

Lava River Cave via AllTrails:
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/arizona/lava-river-cave

Book your stay at the Wildflower Inn at Bell Rock:
https://www.wildflowerinnsedona.com/