7 2 CRATER LAKE

Heading north from Klamath Falls it is only 57 miles or so to one of the most beautiful locations on our trip, Crater Lake. Created by the eruption od Mount Mazama 7,700 years ago, it is the deepest lake, at 1,943 feet, in the US. Around every turn and at every pull out there is something new that catches the eye and calls for a picture. The 33mile rim drive took about four hours to complete without taking any hikes. With restraint, I managed to take only 70 pictures,
making it hard to choose what to post.

One of the first views of the lake heading west on the Rim Drive. Wizard Island was formed by a later eruption and reaches an elevation of 6940 ft and is 767ft above the water level of the lake

Another view of Wizard Island.

And another.

Mt. Thielson to the north of the park as seen from the rim drive.

A young Grey Jay begging for food from an adult Jay not in the picture. Wonder if our kids would do any better with this approach. It didn't work too well, he finally gave up and flew away.

One last picture of the Wizard

What makes snow red? The blood of tourist who aren't used to playing in snow? Dust from the Painted Hills? No one is telling. We have learned that the red stain is caused by a blue green algae that lives in the snow during the winter and some how produces the red stain. So now we know.

Red Cone with Mt. Balleyin the back ground. There is still a lot of snow around even in July, one reason why the Rim Drive is closed 8 to 9 months a year.

And this was where Arleen saw it all from. And why I didn't spend more time and didn't take more pictures. I wasn't sure she had enough money for me to stay away too long. Of course,I was wrong. Over all, she is still playing on her winnings. So it was a good day for both of us.

7 1 OBSIDIAN AND PETROGLYPHS

This is the mountain that has the petroglyphs on it. (sorry it is out of order)

We left Lakeview and went to see the lady at the rock shop so Duane could see what rainbow obsidian looks like. She explained where to go and what to look for. So, again we went to pick up rocks. We found some. When we get home we are going to have to find out who can polish them or us.

Then we drove on to the section of Lava Beds National Park that has the petroglyphs.

The mountain that has the pictures on it (see above) was at the edge of a huge lake. The ancients had to take canoes to the rock to make the glyphs.

This is one of the panels on the wall.

following are some of the glyphs

6 30 SUN STONE COLLECTION

Again we went toward Lakeview so we could collect more sunstones. It is addictive.

This picture shows that there are lots of stones on the ground. The idea is to find big ones. We got some. We weren't lucky enough to find crystals...the ones that are really worth money.

Aren't they neat looking?

6 29 FOSSIL BEDS

Last nite we stayed in the "big" city of Burns. It should be the mosquito and cricket capital of the world. In the morning, a cricket walked over Arleen's mouth. Yuck!! We stayed in a different, more expensive motel the next nite.

We went to the Diamond Crater area for the day. It is not a national park or monument, just a point of interest.

The area is full of craters. Not the kind that are on the top of hills or mountains, but the kind that are just in the ground. Here are some pictures of some of them.

This one has had water in it for 6 thousand years and scientists are able to get lots of info from the sediment that has settled in the bottom.
See the 2 craters in the distance.

A big crater right in front of us and a cinder covered crater in the distance

Just imagine .... Oregon is the remnant of a living, farting landscape. (when you go to the bathroom, first you release gas, then solids and then maybe some more gas.....that is how many eruptions occurred.....ergo...farts:) )

When the gas filled first part of the eruption threw rocks into the air and made cinder. Then there would be a lava flow of solid material. Then there might be more cinder. See the similarities.

6 28 JOHN DAY FOSSIL BEDS

We drove today to the Painted Hills of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. We were hoping that we could see fossils, but we were dissappointed to find out that the fossil finding is only for the scientists. All they tell us is where the fossils were found and what info they got from them.

We went to the painted hills portion of the park. To get there we drove thru this crack in the lava flows. This crack has a road in it, and it wasn't made by man, but by nature. It was cool.


Look at the colors in these hills.

6 27 BEND TIMBERFEST

Went to Timberfest. The clerk at our motel told us where it was. Well he told us where he thought it was. It wasn’t. we called a place that Arleen thought might be where it was (a restaurant ranch). It wasn’t there either, but the nice man at he info center looked on the internet, bound out where it was to be held, and told us correctly how to get there. Wasn’t that nice of him. We got there at 10am when they were supposed to start. Well they started at about noon. It was lots of fun to watch and see what you don’t see on TV. Ie. What they have to do to set up the events. How the participants have to prepare. It was fun.

6 26 PAULINE PEAK

Today we decided to drive to the top of Pauline Peak (tho the day was a little hazy) and Century drive, that we thought from the maps we had, would take us to Sisters (a town).

First we went to the top of Paulina Peak which is actually the highest point on the Newberry Caldera. From there we had wonderful views of the volcanic area around Bend.

In the caldera are 2 lakes, Paulina and East Lakes. They used to be one lake until the mountain made cinder cones inside the caldera and separated the lake into 2 lakes.
view of Paulina Lake

One of the lava flows with Paulina lake in the background

more lava flows

Notice all the cinder cones in this picture. The whole area was just erupting like crazy back then.

View of Mount Jefferson from the peak

Turns out you can’t get there from here this time of year. We did drive around Mount Bachelor and see the ski area. We ended up right back at our hotel, without meaning to. We went Sisters to see the beginning of the Metolius River. It starts from 2 springs coming out of the ground with enough water to have a full sized river. Neat. And we helped, or tried to, feed peanuts to the ground squirrels. There were a half dozen people feeding them. They didn’t need to take any from us. It was fun to watch, since they would sit there and open the nuts right in front of you. They made lots of noise doing it, too.