The Lava Caves (Indian Tunnel & Buffalo Caves)

The caves are lava tubes — roofs over rivers of lava that drained out and left hollow tunnels — formed in the 2,000-year-old Blue Dragon and other flows of the monument’s northern field. The Shoshone and Bannock knew the tubes as hunting-season shelters; the tubes’ names record early settler and explorer stories. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the early caves trails in the 1930s–40s, and the monument’s cave permit programme — created to stop white-nose syndrome’s fungus from entering — now manages access; Indian Tunnel, with its collapsed skylights, is the standard family cave, while the tighter Buffalo Caves need permits and true caving gear. The tubes formed as roofs over rivers of lava that drained away, leaving hollow tunnels in the 2,000-year-old Blue Dragon and younger flows; the Shoshone and Bannock knew them as seasonal shelters, and the CCC built the early cave trails in the 1930s–40s. The monument’s free cave-permit programme, created to keep white-nose syndrome out, now manages all underground access.