May 28 - 2018 La Pine, Oregon

Seeing Mt. Lassen and Crater Lake, has sparked our interest in volcanos. There are a lot of national and state sites in Oregon showing volcanic activities, so we decided to see one today (May 28). It is called the Newberry National Volcanic Monument.

Although it was a short move (110 miles/ 175 km), the monument is spread out through a large forest area, run by the National Forest Service. This made it rather tricky to plan the trip. Our campground is close to the southern-most sites (we were driving up from the south), but we were there way too early to check-in. So, we drove about 20 miles/32 km north, and unhooked the trailer at the visitor’s center.

We then drove 1.5 miles/2.5 km south again, to go to the Lava River Cave. The cave is actually a lava tube, that was formed by molten (flydende) lava. Once the lava stopped flowing, the tube remained hollow, forming a cave. It was pretty cool to see (also literally, because it was 42 degrees F/about 5 degrees C😊). Unfortunately, our pictures didn’t turn out very well, because the only light in the cave came from the flashlights people were carrying.

After the cave, we drove out to the Lava Cast Forest (about 9 miles/15 km on a very rough dirt road). Once (about 7000 years ago), a forest grew here. Lava from a volcanic eruption caused the forest to burn. The steam let off by the burning wood cooled the lava around the trunks. Over time the wood rotted, and left molds of the tree trunks – called lava casts. There were lots of them here. There was also a lot of lava, and after so many thousands of years, still very little vegetation.

 

Next, we drove back to the visitor’s center, where we caught a shuttle bus, that drove us to the top of Lava Butte. This is a cinder cone, formed by hot gas charged lava, that piled up after exploding from underground. The result is a cone shaped hill, with a crater in the middle.

 
Now it was time to move our trailer to the campground. So, we hooked it up to the car, and headed south again! By this time, we needed a little rest, before we headed out to The Obsidian Flow (about 15 miles/22 km south and east).

Volcanic lava rocks have different appearances, depending on the minerals they are made of, the temperature they are heated to, and where they land. We had seen many basalt rocks – greyish at the Lava Cast Forest, reddish at the Lava Butte. The Obsidian flow had some of these rough and dry-looking rocks, but it also had a lot of obsidian rocks, which are rocks containing a large amount of silica (73% - which is the same amount of silica in window glass). These are glass rocks. They shine, are sharp, and break easily – just like glass. (We have been hearing about the volcano eruption in Hawaii, that the air is dangerous to breath, because it contains small partials of glass. Now we know what they mean.)

 

Enough volcanos for today. Time for bed😊

Written by Mary