June 17, 2010 – Exploring Oregon Lava Lands.

I am going to do things a bit different this afternoon!  Instead of a lot of words, I am going to share some photos of this beautiful area.

We have had a great time in the La Pine, OR, area!  I would highly recommend it to all travelers.  Do you remember we visited the Fall River Fish Hatchery last Sunday?  On Tuesday, we drove up to the top of the Newberry Caldera—13 miles UP the road in the front of the campground—to Paulina and East Lakes.  These two scenic lakes reside in the inside of the collapsed top of Newberry Caldera.  I LOVE these two lakes and could spend all summer camped on the edge of either lake. 

However, it was my lucky day.  We had just finished eating our picnic lunch and a truck drove in.

The OR Wildlife staff member was delivering 20,000 Kokanee fingerlings to both Paulina and East Lakes.  Because it was a split delivery, he had to ‘fish” out the fingerlings at Paulina.

However, it seems the Kokanee aren’t the smartest fish on the food chain—as many tried to swim ashore!  He told me that never happened with the Rainbow or brown trout, just the Kokanee.

I spent about 30 min. swooshing the little fish back into the lake!  I was playing God, as in helping them live, it shorted the hungry birds waiting for an easy meal after their long winter!  When he left, no fish were left on the beach—but my fingers were frozen fingerlings!  I couldn’t stand by and watch those fingerlings from Fall River Hatchery perish, even if it was about 40 degrees with a cutting north wind!

Over at East Lake, he was able to place the fingerlings in the lake by using the hose to drain the fish tank.

And even then, a few tried to swim ashore, but I stood there scaring them back into the lake.  The fishermen will be so happy!

On the way down, we stopped at the Obsidian Flow area.  It was very striking, but most of the black obsidian area was still covered with snow.

We made a quick stop at Paulina Falls, the only outlet of Lake Paulina,  The snow is melting and the falls were striking!

The ride to the top of the Newberry Caldera is a must-do trip! 

The following day, we woke up to Frost on the Pumpkin!  Brrrr!  The weather has been in low 30s at night and high 70s during the days.

We drove north to the Newberry Lava Lands Visitor Center to explore the educational displays about the area and volcanoes.. The Lava Butte is next door to the visitor center.   Adventurous visitors can hike to the top of the 500 ft. high Lava Butte cinder cone.

We went up this way:

It is a round-about drive to visit the top.  From the parking lot, hike up to the former Fire Watch tower to see the wonderful view:

The depression inside the caldera is 150 ft. deep.

I didn’t take advantage of the hiking trail around the cone as I was noticing little white drops falling on my jacket.  So, we bundled up and headed over to the Lava River Tube to just “look” at it.  I don’t do dark confined places well!

This inviting trail leads you in through a part of the collapsed Lava tube and leads to:

And then it started snowing/soft hailing again!  I walked to the entrance to get out of the snow storm.

I walked down as far as the left corner of the photo and stopped to look further in.  When I looked up and saw all those rocks on the ceiling had cracks around them, I decided I didn’t need to go in and walk a mile in the dark!  “Enough,” my rational self said to my not-very-adventurous self!

Visiting the Newberry Volcanic National Monument was very interesting!  I am glad we came.  Next visit we will make time for the High Desert Museum just outside of Bend.  Tomorrow morning, we will take Hwy 58 over the Cascade Range to Eugene, OR.

We will meet my father in Eugene as he travels north to Mt. Vernon, WA on Saturday afternoon..  That is just one of the neat things about RVing—meeting up with family and friends along the route!