While staying in Bend, OR we saw that Newberry National Volcanic Monument was nearby, so we decided to pay it a visit.
Newberry National Volcanic Monument is enormous – more than 54,000 acres in fact. We therefore only got to see a small part of it, with us heading to the Lava Lands site first.
We visited the first week of November 2021 and the visitor center was already closed for the season, but that didn’t seem to affect our ability to learn about the site too much thanks to all the information boards they have set up along the trails.
Lava Lands
There were several trails at Lava Lands, with one of them taking you up Lava Butte Cinder Cone. However, Shae was still recuperating after her gall bladder surgery and so we decided to take the easier Trail Of The Molten Land. That’s a one mile paved path through the Molten Land and so was an easier route but still somewhat strenuous for Shae seeing as she was still on the mend.
I don’t know if all sites in Newberry National Volcanic Monument are pet-friendly, but dogs are allowed at Lava Lands and so we brought Truffles along so that she could get to explore with us.
Volcanic rock can be rough on your pup’s paws, but the paved path meant there weren’t any issues here.
The Trail Of The Molten Land takes you towards the Lava Butte Cinder Cone, with lots of information boards along the way telling the history of the volcano.
The site reminded me of the Bandera Volcano in New Mexico which we’d visited a couple of months before. At Newberry National Volcanic Monument though, the path you take sometimes cuts right through the volcanic rock.
As we walked along we spotted what appeared to be a twisted tree that looked like it was the Loch Ness Monster rising out of the volcanic rock. Sure enough, it’s known as the Lava Ness Monster due to its shape. The Lava Ness Monster even has a “tail” which is its one root that managed to reach water, with its other roots simply helping support it.
The volcano erupted in the middle of a forest, so as the trail takes you uphill a little you can see where the lava field stretches to the rest of the forest that survived. There are also some trees that are trying their hardest to grow in the middle of the rock too.
The day we visited Lava Lands it was incredibly cold and windy, so be aware that you might need to be bundled up even more warmly than expected. The biting wind made my ears hurt, so I ended up having to wrap a scarf around my head to protect them.
Paulina Creek Falls
Despite it being so chilly, we decided to make the most of being out and about to explore another part of Newberry National Volcanic Monument – Paulina Creek Falls.
The falls are about 35 miles from Lava Lands, so we headed south on US-97 before turning left on to Finley Butte Rd. The road up wasn’t particularly steep, but there was a steady incline and as we got ever higher we started encountering snow.
This wasn’t what we were expecting, but it was fun being in a picturesque winter wonderland in early November.
You can view Paulina Creek Falls from above and below. The parking lot was above, so we took the short path to that viewpoint first.
We then decided to head down the fairly short trail to view the falls from below.
I’m sure Paulina Creek Falls looks beautiful in the summer, but there was something magical about seeing it in its wintry setting before it had frozen over.
We got chatting to another visitor on our way back up and he mentioned that he’d visited the day before and that there hadn’t been any snow on the ground. We therefore got extremely lucky with our timing that we visited the falls just after a storm had rolled in and deposited so much snow.
Some of the trees had narrow trunks which meant they could be easily shaken to make it look like we had our own personal snowcloud.
Other than the Bandera Volcano and Ice Cave, it’s not often that you can go from a volcano to snow and/or ice in a short distance, but that’s what Newberry National Volcanic Monument offered us during our visit.
Beth says
Great pictures. Never been to that area of Oregon, but it looks like I should add it to by bucket list. Thanks for the post.
stephen says
There are some very beautiful areas near Bend. Smith Rock State Park is stunning too – I’ll be writing a post about there too soon.