Lava Beds National Monument
Modoc / northeastern California · near Tulelake · Shasta Cascade
Stargazing
At a glance
- Best season
- Late spring–fall for Milky Way; cold and remote year-round
What is here
- Highlights
- milky-way · astrophoto
- Landscape
- volcanic
- Amenities
- Bortle 1–2 darkness · Volcanic lava & cinder-cone foregrounds · Small campground on site · Profound solitude
- Best for
- Pristine dark skies in the state's empty corner
- Features
- Among California's darkest skies · Black-lava foregrounds · Extreme remoteness · Near-total solitude
Worth knowing
- Hazards
- Extremely remote — no services nearby; carry everything · Cold nights year-round at elevation · Long drive from anywhere — plan fuel & time · Rough terrain & cave hazards by day — bring red light at night
- Beginner friendly
- No
Stargazing detail
- Designation
- informal
- Reach
- moderate
- Darkness
- 5
- Sky notes
- A remote volcanic tableland of lava tubes and cinder cones in California's empty northeastern corner — one of the darkest, least-visited places in the state, where the Milky Way blazes over black lava with almost no one around
- Stats note
- ~Bortle 1–2; lava-tube caves & cinder cones; extreme remoteness
- Campground
- Yes
- Intl tip
- One of the darkest, least-visited places in California — a volcanic tableland of lava-tube caves and cinder cones in the empty northeastern corner near Oregon (~Bortle 1–2), where the Milky Way blazes over black lava with near-total solitude and a small on-site campground. Genuinely far-flung: minimal distant services, a long drive from anywhere, cold nights year-round, rough terrain. Travel fully self-sufficient, carry everything, plan fuel, bring a red light. Among the very best darkness in the state.
The guide
Lava Beds National Monument, sprawled across a volcanic tableland in the empty northeastern corner of California near the Orego…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Lava Beds National Monument — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 41.71, -121.51