Lava River Cave in Flagstaff

Lava River Cave

Location: Flagstaff

Distance of Hike: Aproximately 2 miles - 1/4 mile to the cave and about 3/4 mile inside the cave.

Kid Friendly - Yes - Our kids loved this! - the older 5 headed off and our 4 year old strolled along with us. 
Parking Fee: No


I don't usually like to be alone in pitch black darkness in an unfamiliar place however I walked down the middle of this almost 1 mile long cave underground all by myself and felt at total peace. The Lava River Cave in Flagstaff is an underground cave created from lava flow about 675,000 years ago. It's just a long tube, no off shoots where creepy animals or people can jump out at you. Ha ha !Although the sign did say that creatures do live in the cave. 

The Lava River Cave is just outside of Flagstaff. It's a short 1/4 mile walk from the parking lot to the cave.  You aren't looking for a cave in the side of a mountain.  You are looking for a hole in the ground.  There were quite a bit of people in the cave when we arrived but since it was late afternoon most were heading out.  Our five older kids went on ahead while we stayed with our youngest.  Mid way through the cave my husband decided to turn around with our youngest and start heading out since he knew it would take a while.  I went on ahead to look for our other kids.  Like I mentioned above all alone in a pitch black, if you turn your flashlight off you can't see, cave.  Since there was only one way to come and go I knew I would run into them. 

I actually made a little bit of a fool of myself when I thought they were coming.  I started blinking my flashlight just to find out it wasn't them as they passed.  I did catch up with them at the end where they were trying to crawl into a tiny section.  We headed back and had fun taking shadow pictures.  We'd all shine our flashlight on one person to cast a prominent shadow.