This part of Oregon East of the Cascades is very different from the coast. It is dry and desert like. It is also very volcanic in its terrain. Some of the volcanic activity is relatively recent, the last two thousand years or so. Don and Bev took us to Newberry Caldera for a little hiking and looking at the scenery. The one thing I found the most interesting was the obsidian lava flow. I had never seen one of these things before and I was quite excited to climb around on top of it. As you all know, obsidian is that black volcanic glass. I was expecting ot see large areas covered with black glass, but that was not the case. What was there was a huge jumble of rocks. Some of them were obsidian and some of them were pumice, which is obsidian with gas entrained. The reason that they are all jumbled around is that after the lava cools and hardens, the flow continues and that breaks up the hardened parts. So, being easily amused, I really enjoyed seeing this lava flow.

We had a nice lunch at Paulina Lake then had a view of Paulina Falls before heading back to the house and an enjoyable evening of conversation and a nice dinner with tasty wine. Life is good.