Butts and buttes

I'm dipping my toes tentatively back into the blogging world. Life has changed radically in the last few weeks, but this post has been waiting for a while, so here you are. 

Jenny and the boys went out to the Ranch with me for a weekend in September. 

The dog came too, but we managed to ignore him for most of the weekend.

He didn't get to accompany us on our outing to the Newberry National Volcanic monument, just south of Bend. I had been wanting to visit the Lava River Cave for some time. It is the longest continuous lava cave in Oregon. 

When the kids were young, we visited the Ape Caves (near Mount St. Helen's in Washington) several times, so we were familiar with the concept of lava caves. It was a favourite outing back then, so I was excited to show this cave to Jenny and the boys.

What we didn't know was that the monument covers a large area, almost 90 square miles, and contains several great places to visit. As well as the lava cave, there is a visitor centre, Lava Butte, the Great Obsidian Flow, and the Lava Cast Forest. It was created in 1990 and is quite spectacular.

As I recall, the cost to enter the area was only $5 a car, and then another $5 for a lamp to take into the caves. We could have skipped renting a lamp, but half the flashlights at the house didn't work (one due to corroded batteries and one to being dropped by a person who shall remain nameless but who was the tallest person on the outing).

First, we hit the visitor's centre, which gave us a good idea of where we wanted to spend our time and educated us about the area.

We drove to the top of Lava Butte, and this is overlooking the crater at the top.

At ground level, it's hard to appreciate how many volcanic calderas and buttes dot the landscape. From the road, all you can see is forest and (sometimes) volcanic rocks. The view from the top is much more interesting.

A path follows the rim of Lava Butte. It is a nice, easy, quarter-of-a-mile stroll.

It was very cold and windy, but you get a nice 360-degree view of the surrounding countryside.

An old fire watchtower sits at the peak of the butte.

The last eruption was 7,000 years ago, and this part of the land still hasn't recovered.

We drove to the Lava River Cave, which was only a few minutes away from the visitor centre.
Here we are, at the entrance of the cave.

There are 150 steps leading down to the cave itself and a few rocky places at the beginning of the trail, but there is a rail to hang on to and the trail surface evens out as it continues.
Beware, however, of sudden potholes and drop-offs. It pays to keep your eyes on the trail.

There are several cool formations as you walk through the cave. Photos are difficult, because they are all flash driven, so most of them weren't worth showing. I particularly like this Sand Garden, which is about halfway through the cave. The floor of the cave here is covered with sand. The formation is made up of volcanic ash from Mount Mazama, which is carried by rain and melting snow from the surface through cracks in the rock and deposited, one grain at a time, on the floor of the cave. 
Talk about delayed gratification. 
Occasionally, enough water leaks into the cave to create a pool, which allows the sand to spread out across the floor. The constant dripping of water in the cave has carved out pinnacles and spires in the sand. Because these delicate sand forms take hundreds of years to create, the Forest Service has fenced off the area.
Good thing too.
Keeps the idiots out.
The photo does not do the sight anywhere near the justice it deserves.

The end of the cave narrows down, until only the bravest (or smallest) will venture forth.
We were not very brave.
Thomy got a big kick out of surprising people with his glow-in-the-dark skeleton hoodie. It became a source of pride to him to see how many people would comment on it.

And on the way home, as we passed Black Butte and some of the other calderas, we kept talking about Black Butt and roaring hysterically every time.
We are so easy to amuse.