Saturday, Oct 1

Another day mainly comprised of driving a scenic byway. This time I drove from Baker City  to Bend, Oregon using the Journey Through Time Scenic Byway that cuts east-west across the center of the state and encompasses canyons, old mining towns, farmland and forests. Since it is a drive, the best way to experience it is through the map and video which are here.

After two days of driving I was ready to do some walking and so, before heading to Bend for the night, I visited Newberry National Volcanic Monument a few miles south of the city. Newberry Volcano is still considered to be active and has erupted many times over the past 500,000 years with its last eruption about 1,300 years ago. This relatively new National Monument has the widest assortment of volcanic features of any of the volcanic parks but I had limited time so I settled for watching a movie about those features, walking a trail through the lava field and then driving to the top of a nearby cinder cone where there are good views as well as a full-time forest-fire lookout station that spotted over 50 potential wildfires last year.

One of the features at Newberry NM are large lava caves. Lava caves are formed when molten lava in a deep flow gets trapped under a crust of cooled lava. Sometimes the pressure builds sufficiently and the molten lava bursts through the end of the crust and flows away, leaving a hollow cave. Unlike in limestone caves there are no formations in a lava cave. Normally you can carry a flashlight and venture into a large lava cave that is over a mile long but my timing, however, could not have been worse as it closes to visitors on October 1st each year to allow the bats inside some peace to breed.

One of many lava fields at Newberry NM with a cinder cone, called Lava Butte, in the background
The view from the top of Lava Butte showing the caldera of the Newberry Volcano as well as the lava field.