Part 1, Around Bend

On Tuesday Aug.3 we went to the Lava Cast Forest. The road that gets you there is east of the town of Sunriver, is gravel, is 9 miles long, can be pretty bumpy and has a fee station at the park entrance. On the way in we were wondering if it was going to be worth the trip. On the way out we were convinced that it was well worth it.

Picture Album for Lava Cast Forest at: http://jackbarbic.shutterfly.com/2735

About 6000 years ago the Newberry Volcano erupted and lava flowed into this area. Many trees were incased in the lava. The result was that a cast of the trees were made if the trees were big enough to cool and freeze the lava before it totally destroyed the tree. The trees later deteriorated and the casts remain. There are cast of trees that were standing and some that had fallen down. There were some casts of standing trees that were about 2-4 feet deep, which is an indicator of how deep the lava was. The actual depth is unknown because all the casts of standing had lava stones in them, so the original hole could have been deeper.

         

We found one cast where the lava surrounded two trees that were close together.

                    

Here are some pictures of trees that had fallen before they were covered by the lava.

                                           

There were several trees that had fallen together. I stuck may camera in the holes and too pictures looking along the length of the tree.

                                    

       

The trail is a one mile loop. The estimated time was one hour, however, we found it so fascinating that it took us almost four hours.

We had a late lunch at the High Desert Museum and then stopped at Lava Lands. Watched some very interesting movies about volcanoes and the threat they pose to nearby communities. Kind of like what hurricanes can do to buildings on barrier islands. Unfortunately my camera batteries ran down and I didn’t get all the pictures I would have liked to take.

                

On Wednesday we went to Smith Rock State Park. It is located near the towns of Redmond and Terrebonne. According to one of the displays, Smith Rock is the result of a volcanic eruption that deposited ash one half mile deep that over time hardened into a rock known as Smith Rock tuff. Some time later another flow of basalt pushed the Crooked River to it’s current location at the base of Smith rock.

Smith Rock State Park picture are at: http://jackbarbic.shutterfly.com/2947

There are many trails for hiking, you can hike to the top of Smith Rock. This area is also an international rock climbing destination. On top of that scenes from movies like Rooster Cogburn The Postman and Swordfish were filmed here.

               

At one point the sun was in a position such that a face seemed to appear on the rock. Not a particularly good looking face, more along the lines of something out of the movie “The Mummy”.

                                     

North of Mt Bachelor are the Three Sisters mountains. There was a fire in that area, that at this point in time was about20% contained. I snapped this picture of the smoke cloud after we returned to the campground.

End of Part 1.