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6.10.19-Mount Newberry Experience
Mount Newberry is about thirty-miles down the road. I thought it would be a one-topic venue but discovered that we enjoyed the Paulina Lakes, the East Lake, Paulina Falls and finally Obsidian Peak.
Paulina Lake
Once again we see the specter of this mountain range. This time were at a roadside viewing point. For the first time we also have the names of these mountains. The Sister Mountains, back in the 1800’s were once know as Faith, Hope and Charity. Bachelor, extreme left, appears to tower over the others, but in actuality it’s only just over nine-thousand feet. Two of the Sister mountains are over eleven thousand feet. The area on the topographical rendering is about the size of Rhode Island. This entire area was covered with lava rock from twelve to five-hundred feet deep.
In the center of the picture above is the result of its blowing its top. Center of picture is Mount Newberry. When the incident happened it spread lava all over up to thirty miles away. Where Carla’s finger is, at the top of the picture is Sunriver, the town we are camping in. Once again, Center picture are those two blue areas. Right now we’re visiting the pool of water on the left, Paulina Lake. Below are pictures of this area.
Above is a blow-up of the top of Mount Newberry. It took thousands of years but after the initial blow-up the insides of the volcano actually fell into itself. This formed a “Caldera.” This is very similar to what happened to the Volcano involved with Crater Lake. In the case of Newberry we got two lakes, one a little higher than the other.
The mountains above have no relation to what were to see today. Mount Newberry is our challenge for today. It was back about 30,000 years ago that Newberry began to grow. And grow it did, reaching over 12,000 feet at one time. Then around 10,000 years ago, as one youngster put it, it blew its top.
Above is Obsidian Peak. You cannot drive to the top but there is a trail you can hike to it. Below is the Paulina Lake Lodge, closed at this time.
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Below another picture of the Lodge and above you find a Telephone Booth. When did you ever see one of these.
Now we’re off to experience East Lake, the blue body of water in the picture at the top of the blog.
East Lake:
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Now were off to Obsidian Rock:
. This is a special type of lava flow. Below the path isn’t great but I have a feeling it won’t last.
This is a section of the flow. The depth here is about 200 feet. (Below) This is what I was afraid of. Not only is it very rough and laden with outcroppings of rocks, it’s going up, I mean very high up.
Need I say we’re still going up and I see no smooth super highway ahead. Below is a BIG example of Obsidian Rock. This type of rock, if you look closely is almost “glass-like.” In fact it is glass. Commercial glass is 99.7% pure silica (sand). The rock in the picture below is 77% silica but still qualifies it as being glass.
I’m tired and ready to leave but we have one more stop. Above we saw a picture of Obsidian Rock. Below is a picture of the mountain we were walking around and it is a solid piece of Obsidian Rock about thirty-thousand years old.
Paulina Falls:.
We decided to put off viewing the lower point of the Paulina Falls until just before we leave. Here goe the National Park Service enticing us with this wide flat walk-way, I wonder what really lies ahead.
The walkway did not disappoint, it actually got better and above is what we saw all the way up to the falls. Yes I said UP! Below are the falls and it was well worth the uphill climb.
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Remember what a Caldera is? This is when a volcano goes dormant and in ten or twenty thousand years the sides of the top of the volcano slowly begin to fall into itself forming a “bowl” or in the official language a “Caldera.” Remember this is the volcano that spilled lava over an area of Oregon the size of Rhode Island.
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Some of the beautiful natural views in this National Park.
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Now we’re working are way down from the falls to view them from below, like they’ll look that much more different.
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Above we’re looking DOWN the rough rocky barely visible trail and stopped to decide will it really be worth traversing this path. Below we decide not to pursue the journey and take everybody’s word on the fact that it’s a beautiful site. We’re older, NOT OLD, and we know it. No need to take chances, we do enough of that on a regular basis.
Ah! the parking lot. I could go for a beer. A very nice day for sure.
