Golden Dome is one of the lava tube caves of Lava Beds National Monument in northern California, 2,229 feet of passage that the park ranks among its moderately challenging caves. Like the rest of the monument's caves, it formed as flows of smooth lava cooled, sometime between about 10,500 and 65,000 years ago.
Getting in takes a ladder and some care at a spot the park calls headache rock, a hazard on the way in and again on the way out. From the bottom, the downstream passage heads north and asks for some stooping; the upstream end takes more stooping and a little crawling, and anyone going through the whole cave will crawl somewhere. The prize lies in the back section, which loops in a figure-8 around the dome itself, a layout the park warns can send visitors round in circles.
The gold that gives the cave its name is not metal. Under a lamp the ceiling glows like polished gold, as the light catches countless water droplets beaded on a thin living coating. The park describes it as hydrophobic bacteria; the Geological Survey's study of the Lava Beds caves called it lava-tube slime, bacteria and primitive fungi growing in a film of caliche, and dubbed the effect "false gold." It shows at its best here and in Hopkins Chocolate and Valentine caves. The coating is harmless to people but easily damaged, so the rule is to look and not touch.
Cavers need a free caving permit from the visitor centre before entering any cave in the monument, a measure that helps keep white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease deadly to bats, from spreading. At least 14 species of bats live in these caves, and anyone who finds them is asked to move on quietly. A helmet, long sleeves, sturdy boots and more than one real light are the standard kit.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
