In central Oregon, there is an old volcano (I don't think its extinct-but its sleeping or something-it might be in the same mountain range as Mt. St. Helens, I can't remember) known as the "Newberry Caldera." The volcano's dome collapsed eons ago and created a large wall that split the volcano into seperate "holes." When the volcano went to sleep (or what ever it went to), those two "holes" became lakes. The western lake is Paulina Lake and the eastern lake is East Lake (those who named it must have not been feeling that creative that day). At this same location there is the world's largest obsidian (black volcanic glass) flow. In the past, this was a major location for native American's because it was so abundant, it was common to make arrow heads out of it for hunting-the flow is fairly new, only about 1300 years old. In fact, there was a scientific study not too long ago about using it for surgical scaples, it turned out that the glass is so sharp it makes a cleaner cut and reduces the post surgical scar...but thats another story.
Anyway, my family and I go to this like about once a year and it is my favorite place to go. On the northern side of this two mile wide lake is a large cliff of volcanic rock that is about 250 feet tall or so. Every year since I was about 8 I have told myself that I would one day hike around the cliff and stand on top of it (I wanted to see the view). It was one of my two life long goals I wanted to achieve at this lake...well, last saturday on the final day of my camping trip I finally made the hike up on top of it and it was well worth it-and I took my camera along.
Also, for those of you wondering what my other goal for the lake is, I want to swim across it (its about 2 miles wide and 200 feet deep).Anyway, here are some pics from the trip.
The first shot is from a short hike I took up on the north side of the lake on Sunday night. It overlooks the lake looking South.
Next are photos from the hike to the large cliff. This first pic is of me standing on top of a smaller cliff face my brother and I named "Captain Morgan" after he stood up there and did the Cap. Morgan stance from the beer commercials.
Here is a downward shot from on top of the large cliff we finally got to. As you can see, it is a long way down.
Here is a shot from ontop of the cliff looking East.
Here is a shot looking towards the South. In the backgroup is Paulina Peak, the tallest spot on the mountain.
Finally, here is a shot to the East from ontop of the cliff
All in all, I had fun-especially hiking and taking pictures. The fishing was bad this year, but thats OK.
