Invisible Volcano: Get down into lava cave

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This Bend isn´t the Bend you have known from Pete Buttigieg. He is from South Bend, near Chicago. This is Bend in Oregon, the gate to the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, a must see in the United States that only really knowledgeable visitors are able to find. It’s tough to believe a lot of folks miss it! Newberry isn't a National Park like the Grand Canyon Area and it isn't an area under the government of an indian tribe. The place around the Newberry volcano is a nature reserve of the National Monument type and the volcano in his centre is one of the largest shield volcanoes in the Cascade Range, and a lava flow about 40 km long to the northwest.

It`s a rought, a uncomfortably, an ugly and grey landscape of 224 square kilometres protected area, designated by the US Congress in November 1990 and by now administered by the US Forest Service. It lies entirely within the Deschutes National Forest, a national forest, but all around the volcano, named after army scientist John Strong Newberry (1822-1892), you will not find any kind of trees. Here are just black stones and grey stones and heavy stones and light stones.

Newberry discovered the volcano with a US Army expedition between 1857 and 1858 who tried to find possible railway lines. Instead of this
he met a volcano of other kind as known. Like all shield volcanoes it rises relatively flat from the surrounding area. The highest point at Newberry is Paulina Peak with 2434 meters, only 1000 meters above the Deschutes River. Instead of high peaks you can go down in the surface: Newberry had caves an tunnels, groves and crypts. You can go in with ladders and stairways, they put light downstairs and built ways for visitors.

If you walk around the place, located in Deschutes County about 45 km south of Bend, you expirience an otherworldly landscape. This is the place where astronauts years before the first man landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, trained and prepared for their lunar mission. The lava fields of Newberry Crater are dreary and desolate like the surface of the moon, so it fits the needs of the NASA.

You have to know: The center of the volcano – called caldera – has a diameter of about 6.5 km. Nowadays it contains the two lakes Paulina Lake and East Lake, the youngest lava flow Big Obsidian Flow and a small cinder cone called Central Pumice Cone. Paulina Lake, which lies at 1935 m altitude and is up to 76 m deep, is 615 hectares in size. Just like 1000 soccer fields.

The lake with pure blue water are fed only by rain, melt water and hot volcanic springs. The caldera is surrounded by a 200 to 300 meter high crater rim with one leak: On Paulina Creek, a small stream, flows out of the caldera through a gorge on the west side. Geologists assume that the caldera was formed by the collapse of a volcano of about 2700 meters high and about 40 kilometers in diameter about 500,000 years ago. At this time most of the area were covered by lava flows. In one of this flows running lies the Lava Cast Forest, where imprints of tree trunks are preserved in the cooled lava. A ghost forest.

Nearby is the Lava Butte, a 1528 m high volcanic cone that rises over 150 meters above the surrounding area, who is looking dead and dumb. But you have to know: In the last 10.000 years there have been about 25 eruptions in the crater, the lava flow Big Obsidian Flow dates back to about 650 and represents the youngest volcanic activity in central Oregon. Deep down in the earth the volcano is waiting for his next appearance.

Till it`s far the caves and tunnels are open to the public, the caldera and the waterfalls, lava flows, peaks and lakes too. Newberry National Volcanic Monument includes more than 110 miles of trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding. Exploring the Newberry Crater (which is technically a caldera) is a wonderful way to learn about and see firsthand the violent, geological history that helped make Central Oregon the beautiful place it is.

Right off Highway 97 just before you reach Lava Lands, you see Lave Butte, the source of the lava flows and jagged volcanic glass you see. Visiting Lava Lands Visitors Center is a perfect way to get oriented before you head to Newberry Crater. You can also hit Newberry Welcome Station for details and a map. While many visitors miss out on this area, you can stop at Paulina Falls, an 80 foot double waterfall a short walk from the car. And don’t miss the amazing view from the top if you drive all the way up. For extra points and memories, commit to a full, guided day and you check out the Paulina Plunge, a combination of mountain biking and waterfall adventuring.