Smith Rock, Oregon to Lava Beds National Monument

The fun meter is officially PEGGED!  Only two more nights before I'll be sleeping at our home in Texas - can't wait. Anyhoo . . . The last time I posted I was in Bend, Oregon enjoying the Ale Trail. I rode my bike all over town and basically had a great time.  The day that I headed out I traveled north a ways to Smith Rock State Park to check it out. I'd seen photos and knew that I wanted to get some of my own.

It is a decent sized park, taking about an hour or two to walk all around the mountainous terrain.  It is interesting because this portion of Oregon is basically high (altitude) desert, and Smith Rock juts out of nowhere with the pretty Crooked River meandering along the base.  It is popular with climbers, though when I was here portions of the park were closed as it is a golden eagle nesting grounds.

So after that it was off to northern California to Lava Beds National Monument.  I hadn't realized how much of the west has been shaped by vulcanism, with large swathes of Idaho, Oregon, and California (throw in Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico for fun!) just littered with huge broken lava fields.  Lava Beds adds a new twist with many caves (many in a short, one-minute walk from each other) and old lava tubes to explore.

The light part to the right of the photo (my left) is the exit.  This is the only cave that had lighting provided.  The first cave I went in (Skull cave) descended a good ways down to a permanent ice-cave portion that was unfortunately blocked off.

The "topside" portion of the park was pretty desert-like with mostly low growing bushes and very rough, broken basalt to walk on; though trees were growing in patchy locations.  It felt hot, coming from Washington, but the caves made a nice respite.  Some caves you just walked down in, others required climbing a ladder or two sometimes making a tight squeeze.

More to come, stay tuned. Cheers,

Marc