Oregon, Day 7a - Newberry Crater National Monument

Before we hit the Bend Breweries, and visited with the round-a-bout loving pot-puffers of central Oregon, we stopped off at the Newberry Crater National Monument. Actually, this formation is part of the NC monument, but is west of the actual Newberry formation. This interesting pile of rubble is called "Lava Butte", which many people don't know is actually a Paiute Native American term meaning "Over-run with chubby, begging chipmunks."


Here's the Butte from the base of the Lava trail. If you squint (and imagine animation!) you can see the fat little furry bastards crawling all over the thing.



"Look, Furry Bastards", Jane squeals.


Actually, she was mesmerized by the Lava. You haven't lived until you can get a 3 year old so interested in lava to the point that she can't stop saying "lava!"


Yup, that's where we were.

Said fat furry bastards. Here I'm being bombarded with powerful neurological, supernatural kinetic brain waves, commanding me to "deliver 10 pounds of Cheez-Its to the alter for sacrifice", or risk the eternal damnation of my soul.

The view from the top of the butte was phenomenal, although it was difficult to hold the camera still while the fat bastards mauled my ankles. Note in these pictures that you can see the lava flows throughout the forest.

In the foreground here, is the open wound of the Lava Butte Caldera, formed when this pressurized bulge in the earth's crust popped it's top many years ago, spewing out thousands and thousands of full-grown chipmunks across the countryside.

Newberry Crater was created as a National Monument in 1990, after years of management as forestry lands by the USDA.