It was Sunday morning and time for more exploring. Kate announced that we were heading to the Lava Cast Forest, another site in the Newberry Monument area. What is a Lava Cast Forest? That what I was wondering as Kate drove us on a dirt road for miles before we finally got to the sign.
Some 7,000 years ago, the Newberry volcano erupted and here the lava spread over an old growth forest. For some reason the trees did not burn; the lava encased the trees. Over time the trees rotted away leaving molds or casts of the trees. It was also impressive to see trees and brushes growing in the lava rock, a very hostile environment. Many of the trees have twisted trunks which is an adaptation to increase water intake.
Our next stop was Lava Butte which is a cinder cone that rises 500 feet above the lava bed ( in the foreground in the picture below) which goes on for nine square miles. We took a trail at the base of the butte that meandered through this moon-like terrain. Next we took a shuttle bus to the top of Lava Butte and walked around the crater.
Our next stop was at Clear Lake which is one of the clearest and coldest lakes in the Cascades. Some of us wanted to kayak. Kate had brought her foldable kayak so Frank and I watched in amazement as the two engineers in our foursome assembled the flat fiberglass into a seaworthy vessel. I was glad they didn’t ask me for help
After kayaking, it was time to drive about two and a half hours back to Portland. Scarfy, Freddie and the five feathery hens were all happy to see us. After supper, Frank, Kate, and Dan worked on a 550 piece puzzle and almost had it completed before calling it a day. I kept fighting sleep as I tried to work on my blog. We had had a very busy weekend!
Wow, the lava tree are cool!!
Beautiful pic of the kayaks in the water !