July 5th Newbury Volcanic National Monument, Bend Oregon

When the sun came up, it was interesting to see where exactly we had camped. The campground is named “Prairie,” but the prairie is down the hill. There were some large pines and some sparse grass. Aaron made the coffee (much better this time) while I packed up the tent. Though there were some sites nearby, I figured the best place to start was the visitor’s center at Newbury National Volcanic Monument. We enjoyed the flush toilets, watched a short video about the park, and looked at some of the exhibits. We had a timed entry for the drive up the cinder cone, but had a little time to wait, so we walked the short trail through the a’a’ lava flow behind the visitor’s center. Aaron had never seen lava before so it was all new to him. The flow and cindercone were a lot bigger than he expected and he and I both find it kind of amazing how ten foot high or taller flows just appear to stop.

We drove the steep road to the top of the cindercone and got out to look around. At five hundred feet, we could see the extent of that particular flow and the island of trees it missed. We could also see a variety of other cinder cones and snow capped peaks scattered around as well. We hiked the circumference of the cinder cone and were on the peak a little longer than our timed ticket – but there’s no one up there enforcing it.

Our next stop was the Lava River Cave. We grabbed our sweatshirts, headlamp, and flashlight, bypassed the folks waiting to rent lanterns, and descended the stairs into the lava tube. Lava tubes once transported hot lava to vents on the side of the volcano. They are only really discovered when part of the tube caves in and it is exposed. This one was pretty neat because it was go-on-your-own. There were quite a lot of people in there, but you traveled at your own pace using your own lights, following along in the brochure.

The Lava River Cave was named because it has so much sand it in that it was once thought to contain a river, but geologists have determined that the sand is deposited much like stalactites – drop by drop of water percolating through – and in some places the sand is over three hundred feet deep! At one mile, the cave is so full of sand that you pretty much have to crawl to get to the last part you can reach. Aaron waited while I checked it out, but even I was not really excited to go further than where I had to crawl on my hands and knees. A couple of times when Aaron and I were not surrounded by crowds of people, we turned off our light to see just how pitch black the cave was.

Out of the cave, the day seemed much warmer as we ate lunch at the picnic tables. Our next stop was the Lava Cast forest, a few miles down the highway and nine miles down a gravel road. The area was another a’a’ flow just like at the cinder cone. This one had more vegetation growing in the cracks and crevices and I really enjoyed the red flowers of Indian paintbrush. To make a tree cast, the lava basically pushed up against the trees, created circular molds around them, and then burned up the trees, and left the circular holes behind. You can tell the direction the lava flowed because one side of the cast is higher than the other. There were tons of them… some with double trunks, one with a triple trunk, and a few where the trees were cast fallen down. We enjoyed the casual walk along the trail and the peace and quiet of a trail to ourselves.

We continued on to Newberry Crater, another massive volcano with two lakes in its crater. Geologists think it used to be one lake, but the land in between has been uplifted because of some deep volcanic activity. This crater is further down the road we ended up camping on. At this location, we did my favorite hike on the Obsidian Trail. It was another rocky flow - one hundred feet tall that just ended with a steep edge. There were some stairs to get to the top and then a loop trail through the rock outcrops. The whole flow was pumice, dark pumice, and obsidian. Obsidian and pumice are extrusive igneous rocks that form quickly when the lava cools instantly with exposure to air. Because they cool quickly, pumice has lots of trapped air bubbles that make it lightweight and less dense than water (that’s why it floats) and obsidian cools so fast it looks like black glass. And if you get a piece thin enough, you can see through it. I have never seen pieces of either much bigger than my fist, but here they were the size of large doghousess and bigger. The obsidian was shiny in the sun so it was easy to pick out and I was trying to find a large outcrop to take my photo with for the earth science teachers. Aaron and I also tried to find some big pieces of pumice to take impressive photos holding up – because the rocks were big – but much lighter than any other rock of that size. Course, some of them were misleading and were actually really heavy so we had fun trying to find the perfect ones.

We headed north to Bend for dinner at the Deshuttes Brewery. I tried a sampler of six beers and Aaron decided on the beer I picked out for him. He would rather drink one beer whereas I would rather just try them all. Of the six, the gluten-free beer was terrible, but now I can say that I have tried one and the Pub Pale, their signature beer, was the best. I also enjoyed a Graveyard Stout, Black Butte Porter, Miss Spelt, and a Tropish Bruin flavored with tamarind. We both had salads, Aaron had a French dip, and I had salmon with the best macaroni and cheese with sweet chili. It was so good I asked for a spoon so I could get all the cheesy goodness I couldn’t quite reach with my fork (and so I wouldn’t look too tacky licking the bowl).

There were lots of campsites within the crater that we checked out, but it was a little windy and chilly and much higher up. We decided we were better off at Prairie at a lower elevation and where at least the wind wasn’t blowing across the water before it nailed our tent… and this time we paid fourteen thirty-five, to make up, with interest, the amount we were short the evening before.