6 24-25 BEND

Wednesday 6 24

Played golf at the Olde Back Nine. A cute 9 hole regulation course. We played 18 holes, walking (Duane of course carrying his clubs) That was fun too, tiring but fun

Thursday 6 25
We got our stuff together and ready to repack the car and leave on Friday. Then we read about a Timberfest with events like you see on TV, chopping and sawing and axe throwing. We had to stay and see that in person. So we extended our stay.

6 23 BEND

Sorry but the pictures went in on top of the text again. :( So you might want to read the text first, (or not) to help explain our day.

This is what the area looked like. So we had no idea what a cave entrance looked like.

when we found Boyd cave, the entrance was VERY easy to see

the collapsed lava tubes were very deep. Can you find Arleen? (guess this is a new game for this trip)

this is the hole we had to go thru to get to the second collapsed section

Again, can you see Arleen?

In the second collapsed section. It collapsed so long ago that pines have grown. It is rather nice down here. The end of the collapse is where the next crawling space is, that leads to the third section of the lava tube.

The next 5 pictures show Duane going thru the hole that leads to the next section. Note, you do not see Arleen doing this one.

Now you can't see him at all, but if you look closely you can see some light from his flashlite.

We kept looking for local lava tubes or ice caves. We went to Boyd cave. We followed instructions gotten on the internet. We found a sign that said Boyd cave trail. So we took it. After walking ½ mile, we got to a sign that said weren’t going the right way. We had looked at each pile of lava along the trail without finding any holes to climb into. It turns out that the trail named Boyd Cave did not go to Boyd Cave. We saw a truck go by while we were walking back and went to see if they knew anything we didn’t. They did. Right next to the parking spot is metal rails protecting people from the entrance to Boyd Cave. You couldn’t miss it if you tried. We went in the cave about ½ mile. This cave had no stairs (except for some broken down stairs going into the cave… the only way to get in without repelling) , not lights, no nothing. We were the only ones in the cave all the way in. no voices, no lights. When we got near the end, after scrambling over boulders a couple of times, Arleen had had enough, but not Duane. So he went on with his flashlight and Arleen sat in the dark, even tho she had a light, waiting for Duane to return. While she waited two other people arrived. Donny went where Duane had gone and Betty stayed with Arleen and they talked while waiting for the men. It made Arleen feel better knowing that Donny was going “in” because Duane only had one source of light, and therefore he was at risk if something happened to his flashlight (which didn’t happen). Everything went fine and we enjoyed our “inning” (not outing).

Then we went to Arnold cave….it was a bit of a disappointment since there was not much cave to explore and the ice was mostly gone. But we overheard a man telling his kids that there were lots of caves around. So Arleen asked him to tell her about it. Turns out the lava tube that includes Arnold Cave (the source of ice for central Oregon during the early 1900’s) continues on for quite a while. It has collapsed in many places. You can climb down into some of the collapsed sections and not into others. But, you can get between sections in some places by crawling thru cave parts. We both went thru one of these sections into the middle one. Turns out you can then go thru another and get into a third section. Duane went first and decided that Arleen would do better going back the way they had come. Duane continued on while Arleen waited to hear if he made it out in one non-broken piece. She finally heard from him and headed back to her tunnel. All went well and everyone got out with nothing worse that a few scratches.

6 22 BEND

We are really behind on our blogging. So, in order to catch up, I am going to post stuff without doing the usual sorting and organizing. So here we go.

We went to the lava casts forest, Newberry caldera saw Paulina falls, Obsidian lava flow (really nice on a sunny day to see the lava shine)

This is Paulina Falls.

View of Mt. Batchelor, near Bend

Life in the lava beds comes back slowly. Really weird to see a tree starting out.

Where do the roots go for nutrition?

The obsidian flow within the crater or caldera. Obsidian is lava glass and some of it is shiny and bright in the sunlight. We collected some obsidian outside of Lakeview, where it is legal to collect. You can come by and see it.

There is life within this vast flow of rock.

Then we went on to Lava Cast Forest. When the hot lava flowed over a living forest it was able to wrap around the trunk of the tree and cool before the tree caught fire. So when the tree burned up, a mold of the trunk was left in the cooled lava. (not a cast, the name is wrong).
This is a picture of the inside of the mold. As you can see, the lava was melted by the burning tree, which caused it to drip. We have seen this happen in lava tubes also.

When many trees get knocked down by the lava flow, you can get a log jam of casts. Doesn't this one look like a mean face?

Looking down a cast

Sometimes the lava builds up against the side of the trunk as it cools. This tells us which way the lava was flowing.

A long cast

Occasionally the trees are cast laying down. This is one.

Life within this lava flow.

6 21 BEND

We went to the Newberry park and saw the visitor’s center. Nothing very exciting there. We had to get a time for cinder cone road, due to limited parking. This view from the top of the cinder cone, shows a good view of some of the lava flows. Also you can look into the crater.
Nice views from the top. This are the three sisters.

This shows the three sisters and Broken Top mountain

Next we went to Lava River Cave. 1 mile in and a mile out. Even tho they had steps over the difficult rock fall areas at the beginning of the cave, there was no lighting and people either used lanterns or flashlights. There were lots of people there, so there was almost always sounds of voices and some light. The ceiling got low in spots, but at the end, it got lower and lower…. We decided not to go thru about 100 feet of stooping before the end. Other people had. As we were standing, there we heard voices. They were shouting, but we couldn’t make out the words. We shouted to them, but they didn’t respond. We were concerned that they were calling for help, so we did go on. It turned out that there was a continuation of the cave that had an even lower ceiling than what we had just passed thru. A young man was waiting for his friends and was calling to them. That was what we heard. There was no problem. Everyone was OK. So we eventually went back out.
When hot lava or gases go thru an existing lava tube (a tube made by very liquid lava flowing away from a vent, which cools faster on the outside while the inside continues to flow to an outlet at the end, leaving a tube) it remelts the outside layer. This is a picture of the remelt. It is smooth and shiny and shows how it dripped.

Remember Fort Rock? Well, that is it in the distance. It really stands out in the distance.

Wild flowers in the pine forest. Being early summer/late spring the wild flowers are great

And last today, on to Benham waterfall, which was really a rapid, not a falls. We saw a western scarlet tanager on the bridge on the way to the rapid and nice flowers on log jam

flowers in the log jam

6 20 BEND, OREGON

We took the day off. We did laundry and soaked in the hot tub to restore ourselves. Restored we explore Newberry National Volcanic Monument tomorrow. We expect to have a long day since our research shows that the park is closed on Monday and Tuesday, so we have to get a lot done on Sunday.

6 19 ON THE WAY TO BEND

Drove to the Fossil Lake, which is an old dried up lake with fossils on it, so they say. We discovered we had no idea how to find a fossil in a sea of sand (which was probably volcanic ash). All we saw was dunes and desert. We had a nice walk, tho. (we do that a lot, walk and not find what we thought we would, well ok, we also do that in the car:) )

So we left and drove toward Crack in the Ground. Along the way we saw several lava flows. These were pretty old ones with much plant growth on them.

We got to Crack in the Ground, which is a "crack in the ground" caused by some huge ground movement that split parts of a huge lava flow. It made cracks in all different directions. Some of the cracks are filled with rock debris but one, about ½ mile long, is passable.


Can you find Arleen in there?

It is very narrow in spots and we had to climb over some rockfall a couple of times, but it was very interesting and beautiful. Some of the walls showed bubble holes from the inside of the lava flow, since that was what we were looking at. How often do you get to go inside a lava flow? Cool.

Bubbles !

We did climb out of the crack. Notice the rocks that have fallen over.

this is what the countryside looked like, other than the crack. Pretty normal, huh? Nature is pretty awsome!

Then we drove on to Derick Cave. We followed a nice gravel road for about 8 or so miles and then the road became a bit more challenging. But that was no problem for us, we had a Ford 500, ATV to ride in. We weren’t worried. We drove on, even tho we hit several rough patches that made us think about reconsidering our decision, but we had come too far to turn back. So we continued on, scraping noises, bouncing and all. But we made it to the lava tube and enjoyed a walk of about ¼ mile, some in light and some by flashlite. Then we had to retrace our ride in, back out. So Duane reorganized the luggage in the trunk into the backseat, to lighten the backend and at the hardest parts Arleen got out to lighten the frontend and direct Duane over some snarley rocks. But, again we made it and it looks like the car made it too.

Here we are, out in the middle of nowhere, and there is a yield sign. Yield to WHO?

Our all-wheel drive ATV

The view from inside the lava tube. We love caves. The longer and darker the better. Actually, there is no such thing as darker.....a real cave, or tube, once you go around a curve, you are in total darkness....the kind where your eyes never can adjust since there is no light at all...so it can not be darker than that. We even make a point of turning out our lights and stand in the darkness. WOW!

Here is Duane climbing some fallen ceiling rocks. Good camera :)

Then after celebratory grapes, instead of wine (we were still driving) we headed toward Bend. On the way we stopped at Fort Rock, a Maar, created when hot magma made its way to the surface, but the surface was a very deep lake. Then the water hit the hot magma a huge explosion occurred, throwing much of the lake bottom up in the air in a circular direction. Then more explosions, and more…and you get the idea. As time passed the circular mud turned to rock. Then the rock got eroded away by the waves of the lake. Fort Rock is what is left of that process.

Closer look

See if you can see the face in the lower right center of the picture....looks like the sad face from "comedy and tragedy"

Here is the closer look.

When we got finally to Bend we found a nice motel and collapsed.

BEND, OREGON

Arleen and her sister, Debbie, have been to Bend before. They remember it as very interesting because it has lots of volcanic "stuff". So we made a point of coming here. Well, they were right !
There are (is?) lots of "stuff" here. We are staying for many nites and will post the pictures and tell you what we have been doing in the next couple of days. We need to organize all the pictures.

Also, If you visited the blog and read the last 3 or 4 posts, please look again, since we put some pictures up.

More later......