Volcanoes and Rhubarb

One cold day, we went on a tour of Newberry National Volcanic Monument near Bend, OR. I didn't realize how high in elevation we were going when I planned it for this day. Our first stop was Paulina Falls, an 80-foot waterfall plunging over volcanic cliffs. Gorgeous, even with the bad weather.

We then moved on to the Big Obsidian Flow, which contains the result of Oregon's most recent eruption 1300 years ago.

The big chunks of obsidian are just beautiful. The flow is a mile long, and 10% obsidian and 90% pumice.

Do we look cold or what?

Wait a minute! What's this white stuff??? When we were at the top, it started sleeting!

Next we went to Lave River Cave. 100,000 years ago lava flowed through the tube.

It's a mile long, and you better have a good flashlight or rent one of the lanterns. Five of our group went all the way - sorry to say I wasn't one of them...

From there we drove up to the top of Lava Butte cinder cone, and walked around the edge. There are only 10 parking spots at the top, so you must get a permit and only have 1/2 hour at the top. Since it was such a crappy day, we lucked out.

On another day, we went to the Rhubarb Festival in LaPine. Lots of fun, with over 400 rhubarb combination pies. You could buy samples of lots of them, and 5 samples was enough for lunch for me - all dessert.

But the best part was that the festival took place at a nursery and antique shop that had lots of rusty stuff! If I had a house with a garden, I'd go crazy here.

Lots of vendors at the festival too!

We were parked at a Sno Park outside of town, which had a cabin complete with pot-belly stove that we could use to escape the cold. A great place to play games and eat snacks. What a great town!