El Malpais Lava Caves

El Malpais National Monument, has mainly two very different areas to visit, so this was my first trip to see the lava tube caves. There are four which can be visited with permit. One called Bat Cave is not accessible, as it is summer home to 5-15,000 Mexican free tailed bats, the only colony of it's type for hundreds of miles, although there are over 17 bat species in the monument. These images are from Junction cave, the most easily accessible, as I wasn't prepared for more. The lava flows are of different ages and origins. The youngest roughly 3000 years old, and up to 1.5-3.5 million years old.