We joined Dave and Stilla Hobden for a little sight seeing on Tuesday morning. We drove in their truck through Bend, south to the Newberry Lava Lands Visitor Center near Sun River. The visitor center is part of the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, which is operated by the National Forest Service.

Dave had an interagency pass that got us into the monument free. The main attraction here is Lava Butte, a cinder/spatter cone of the Newberry Volcano. Lava Butte rises 500 feet above the surrounding area. The cone erupted 7,000 years ago and created a lava field covering 6,100 acres of land.

The visitor center sits on forested land at the edge of the lava field. There are a number of interpretive hiking trails from the visitor center. There’s also a narrow, steep, paved road to the top of Lava Butte. Cars are limited to a 30-minute stay in the parking area on top of the butte and a pass is required to drive up. No vehicles over 22 feet long are allowed.

Edge of the lava field behind visitor center

Lava Butte viewed from visitor center

We drove to the top of the butte at our appointed time, 11:45am. We hiked the trail around the cinder cone on top. The top of the butte is also home to a fire lookout station. You can see smoke in the distance in the photos from wildfires.

Lava field to the west from the top of the butte

Northwest side of the crater

Donna and Stilla on the trail around the crater

I took a photo of one of the signs on the trail that gives more information. Click on it to enlarge if you’d like to read the sign.

By the time we hiked around the crater and drove back down to the visitor center, it was past noon and we were hungry. We headed back to Bend and stopped for lunch at the Deschutes Brewery. The food was great. Donna had a burger and sweet potato fries. I had a roast beef dip. The beef comes from a local ranch and they make the breads and rolls fresh onsite daily. The Black Butte Porter was also excellent!

After lunch, we made another stop at Trader Joe’s. I got an e-mail from the insurance agency on my smart phone. I had to get back home so I could print out documents for signatures and return them to Miller Insurance. My policy would lapse at midnight and I had to make sure the new policy was in place.

Last night, I caught up on our laundry in the park’s laundromat. Donna had done a few loads in our Splendide washer/dryer, but after a week of dry camping, we had a lot of laundry to catch up on.

We were both tired last night. We watched a couple of TV shows, one was a Jimi Hendrix documentary that I hadn’t seen since the 70s. It disappeared for decades and was released again. I don’t know what the story behind that is. We turned in early.

This morning, I need to pack the trailer, fill the fresh water tank and dump and flush the holding tanks. We’ll pull out of here around noon. Our next stop is an overnight dry camp on property owned by a Escapee member north of Terrebonne. It’s a short drive from here. Tomorrow, we’ll drive north to The Dalles and on to Portland.

Donna is flying to New York tomorrow night. I’ll be a bachelor at the Fairview RV Park for five days.