United States Lava tube
Lava River Cave
8 °C inside, all year.
Dave Bunnell · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 2,351 m.
The real relief above Lava River Cave, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
2,351m
Entrance altitude
from the 30 m relief model
8°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
30m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
8 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 8 °C here, in January and in August. In July the afternoon reaches 28 °C at the entrance, 19 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket. The best months to escape the heat are from June to July. The wettest months are from July to August: water rises fast underground, so never go in without a guide after heavy rain.
- 3°-8°Jan
- 5°-7°Feb
- 10°-4°Mar
- 15°-1°Apr
- 20°4°May
- 27°9°Jun
- 28°13°Jul
- 26°12°Aug
- 23°8°Sep
- 16°1°Oct
- 9°-4°Nov
- 3°-8°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Lava tube cave in Coconino County, Arizona, United States
Lava River Cave is a lava tube in United States. The entrance is at 2,351 m. It has an underground river and the shape of a lava tube. It lies within Coconino National Forest.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Parksnearest town · 14 km in a straight line
- Flagstaff Pulliam Airport (FLG)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 27 km in a straight lineCar hire at FLG airport (Flagstaff)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 1other cave entrances within 3 kmLava River Cave
- 1car parks within 2 km
- 1information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 6campsites within 8 kmHart's Prairie and 5 more
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- viewpoints within 3 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- hotels and guesthouses within 8 km
- restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Parks14 km in a straight line
- Flagstaff23 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Lava River Cave.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Peakyas13 mountains within 10 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 3 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 27 | 28 | 26 | 23 | 16 | 9 | 3 |
| Afternoon | 3 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 27 | 28 | 26 | 23 | 16 | 9 | 3 |
| Night | -8 | -7 | -4 | -1 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 12 | 8 | 1 | -4 | -8 |
| Rain (mm) | 36 | 33 | 24 | 16 | 14 | 6 | 57 | 61 | 32 | 28 | 26 | 40 |
| Rainy days | 6 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 14 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| Sun hours/day | 7.5 | 8.6 | 10.3 | 11.7 | 12.7 | 13.8 | 10.2 | 9.8 | 10.4 | 9.7 | 8.6 | 7.0 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 11 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 3 | 3 | -8 | 36 | 7.5 |
| Feb | 5 | 5 | -7 | 33 | 8.6 |
| Mar | 10 | 10 | -4 | 24 | 10.3 |
| Apr | 15 | 15 | -1 | 16 | 11.7 |
| May | 20 | 20 | 4 | 14 | 12.7 |
| Jun | 27 | 27 | 9 | 6 | 13.8 |
| Jul | 28 | 28 | 13 | 57 | 10.2 |
| Aug | 26 | 26 | 12 | 61 | 9.8 |
| Sep | 23 | 23 | 8 | 32 | 10.4 |
| Oct | 16 | 16 | 1 | 28 | 9.7 |
| Nov | 9 | 9 | -4 | 26 | 8.6 |
| Dec | 3 | 3 | -8 | 40 | 7.0 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (2,351 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 13% | 41% | 237% | 148% | 49% | 0% | 29% | 23% | 3% | 8% | 50% | 10% |
| 2021 | 123% | 20% | 170% | 54% | 14% | 48% | 236% | 46% | 94% | 108% | 9% | 117% |
| 2022 | 16% | 47% | 92% | 7% | 0% | 548% | 174% | 138% | 133% | 133% | 69% | 113% |
| 2023 | 204% | 140% | 379% | 13% | 109% | 33% | 54% | 129% | 101% | 19% | 43% | 22% |
| 2024 | 80% | 195% | 295% | 96% | 26% | 190% | 38% | 136% | 16% | 202% | 27% | 0% |
| 2025 | 18% | 73% | 159% | 174% | 84% | 248% | 43% | 71% | 110% | 221% | 219% | 36% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Lava River Cave
United States
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 2,351 mEntrance altitude
- 8 °CInside, all year
Grand Canyon Caverns
United States · 128 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,651 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Moqui Cave
United States · 208 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 1,608 mEntrance altitude
- 13 °CInside, all year
Mammoth Cave
United States · 256 km
- —Depth
- —Galleries
- 2,417 mEntrance altitude
- 7 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q6502213) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
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