Bend Oregon – Day 2

Tuesday July 7 – Today one of us got up 7:00 and the other got up around 9:00. We won’t mention names but her initials are DH. I would have gotten her up earlier but you know what they say about sleeping dogs. After a leisurely breakfast we headed to the “Lava Cast Forest”. The lava casts, or tree molds, were formed about 6000 years ago when hot lava flowed through the forest. As the lava came in contact with the trees, it solidified around the trunks of the larger ones and then cooled encasing the trees in stone. The lava originated from one of several side vents on the Newberry Volcano. The walk we took was only about a mile long but we could see several of the places where the trees were surrounded. To get to the Forest we had to go up 9 miles of a very dusty gravel road. There was so much dust on the truck I had to wash the truck before the State of Oregon started charging us property tax.
We then went to the Lava Lands Visitor Center. This is an amazing area. Acres and acres of a’a’ (ah ah) lava rock created by lava that exuded from the side of Lava Butte, a cinder cone containing a crater 150 feet deep, less than 6000 years ago. Lava Butte rises 500 feet from the surrounding area and is one of over 400 cinder cones in the Newberry Crater area. There isn’t much parking room at the top so we were assigned a time when it was our turn to drive to the top. Beautiful view of the Cascade Mountains including Mt. Bachelor and the Three Sisters-Faith, Hope and Charity. There were lots of very friendly squirrels there but not friendly enough to have to do the squirrel dance.
From there we went into Bend and found some lunch and looked around town. Visited the Old Mill District on the Deschutes River which is a restoration of, can you guess??, an old mill. It is now an upscale (too far up the scale for us) shopping area, condos, and nice trails along the river.
Tomorrow is another travel day all the way to Maryhill State Park near Goldendale Washington. It is only around 150 miles away but it is at least in our home state. No internet connection at the Park so we will do our final posting after we get home on Thursday July 9th.
Take care and see ya soon.

Lava Cast

Lava Butte

Mt Bachelor and the Three Sisters