camping in a volcano

Owen atop Eagle Peak with Lake Odell in the background

Owen and Dad on Eagle Peak after lunch

The tram up Eagle Peak, Diamond Peak in the background (snow in July)

Owen above the Lava Butte Cinder Cone

Lava Butte Cinder Cone, looking up at the Fire Lookout

Benham Falls on the Deschutes river

Heading through the Lava field at the Lava Cast Forest

Adventurer O at the Big Obsidian Flow

Owen has grown.  No it's just a tiny tree.

Owen having a blast

The smile says it all

Paulina Lake from the Big Obsidian Flow on the side of Paulina Peak

Owen and Dad having fun

On Paulina Lake with the edge of the caldera in the background

Boating, someone looks happy

Camp just before the tent goes away

Near the end of the month, Owen and Richard went camping again, this time camping in a Volcano!  I'm yielding the keyboard to Richard and Owen to give the details of the trip.

We left on Sunday the 24th of July to head out for a 2 night 3 day stay just southeast of Bend in Newberry Volcanic Monument!  We headed east up into the Cascades and stopped at Willamette Pass for a tram ride up Eagle Peak and a view of the surrounding Cascade mountains and Odell Lake.  We did it twice, once for the ride and view and the second time we returned to the car to get lunch and back to the top to eat it!  After the break we headed over the mountains and down towards our destination, well and then back up again into the mouth of the Volcano.  As we pulled into the camp site, Owen declared  "What are those bugs out there".  I said, "I don't know, let's see when we get out".  They were mosquitos.....large mosquitos.......a lot of very large mosquitos.  We hustled around the campground with clouds of mosquitos tailing us to get a lay of the land and then hustled to the car to head to the local general store for some insect repellent.....aahhhhh!  so good.  After that the rest was awesome.  We settled into camp that first night and enjoyed the stars and watched boats on Paulina Lake.  We set up a campfire that night, that was well not my best effort, but I redeemed myself Monday night.  Anyway we ate hot dogs, sun chips and watermelon and drank chocolate milk and raspberry lemonade.    As twilight faded away somewhere around 10 I fell asleep and Owen watched movies.

Monday was Volcano Day!  We headed to the Lava Lands visitor center early in the morning and saw a movie about lava tubes and then headed to the top of Lava Butte cinder cone.  We walked the rim and looked into the belly of the beast, it flinched.  We then headed back down for further lava filled adventures.  the first stop was the  Lava Tube Caves.  We stopped at the ranger station for a lamp and descended into cool air.  Owen and I walked until we could not see the light from the cave entrance and then headed back.  When we left the cave we had a cool drink and drove off for out next adventure.  We drove 8 miles down a dirt track until we hit "THE LAVA CAST FOREST"  It is a path winding its way through an ancient lava flow.  The lava had flowed through a forest and as it felled trees, cooled around them. As the trees died and decayed,  a cast of the former tree was left.  Owen and I walked around looking for and pointing out the different casts.  After a couple of hours of cast hunting we headed to  Subway, for a very late lunch and headed back to Newberry crater and our camp.  When we got back to the crater we decided to see the last lava flow in Oregon, The Big Obsidian Flow.  Owen was an adventurer as we wound our way through the lava up towards the cinder cone, looking at the different colors of pumice and all of the black obsidian.  On the walk we saw Lost Lake and as we looked out back to Paulina lake, the site of our campsite.  After a long day of volcano hunting, it was now about 8pm, we settled into camp for more hot dogs and watermelon (I had a burger this time), pickles and pudding.   We then sat on the dock as the sun set and turned in for a second night under the stars.

Tuesday..Boat Day.  there were boats for rent at the general store, and Owen wanted to go fast, so we rented a boat with a small outboard motor, and a cooler full of all the necessities: Chocolate milk, sun chips and  granola bars.  we tooled around Paulina Lake for 2 hours scoping out future campsites, so that next time we can see our tent from the lake.  After the fun filled boat ride we headed back to break camp and pack the car.  Three and half hours later we were home.

That was our camping trip.  Awesome!