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more photosPaulina Falls drops 80 feet over the rim of the Newberry caldera. A quarter-mile trail, from Paulina Lake Lodge to the falls, follows Paulina Creek, the only visible outflow from Paulina Lake.
Photos by John Gottberg Anderson / For The Bulleti
Vacation hot spot
Newberry National Volcanic Monument: A weekend adventure close to home
By John Gottberg Anderson
For
/ The Bulletin
Published: June 21. 2009 4:00AM PST
PAULINA LAKE — Here’s a weekend getaway for you: Stay in a rustic lakeside cabin. Go fishing for trophy-sized trout. Dine on prime rib. Hike to a hot spring and a couple of waterfalls. Drive to the top of a mountain and take in the view. Explore a cave. Take the kids for a nature walk. Circumambulate a volcanic caldera.
It’s all within an hour’s drive of Bend, some of it a mere 15 minutes away, in Newberry National Volcanic Monument.
Established in 1990 under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service, the 55,500-acre monument embraces not only the Newberry caldera, 40 miles southeast of Bend, but also major lava flows from as recently as 1,300 years ago. And geologists say the volcano is merely slumbering.
The centerpiece of the national monument is Newberry Crater, one of the largest shield volcanoes in the 48 contiguous states. Within its 17-square-mile caldera are not one but two lakes, each with a small resort on its shore. Several campgrounds and boat-launch areas are located on each lake, both of them stocked with kokanee salmon, rainbow trout and German brown trout that grow to state-record size.
Overlooking Paulina and East lakes — once, by all indications, a single large lake — is 7,985-foot Paulina Peak. A massive lava flow on its northeast flank made Newberry of prime importance to Native American tribes, who mined the shiny black glass known as obsidian and traded it throughout the Pacific Northwest. The mountain’s summit is accessible by road in midsummer, by snow machine in winter. From the peak, it isn’t hard to pinpoint the location of the Paulina Hot Springs, on the north shore of Paulina Lake, or the dramatic 80-foot Paulina Falls, at the western rim of the caldera.
Several other sites are located very close to the national monument’s Lava Lands Visitor Center, a mere 12 miles south of Bend off U.S. Highway 97. Besides exhibits and interpretive trails, the visitor center is a hub for short drives to a fire lookout atop a cinder cone, the longest lava-tube cave in Oregon, and the impressive rapids of Benham Falls.
Paulina Lake
Whether you have a single day or a three-day weekend, there’s plenty to enjoy in a visit to Newberry Crater. To reach this natural wonder, take U.S. Highway 97 south toward La Pine; turn left at a well-marked junction, 24 miles from Bend. It’s a 13-mile climb from there to Paulina Lake.
The Paulina Lake Lodge is a few hundred yards off the main Paulina road: across a narrow bridge that crosses Paulina Creek, the lake’s only outlet, and down an unpaved, pothole-ridden lane. Established way back in 1929, it’s been owned for the past 10 years by Karen and Todd Brown, who make Paulina their year-round residence. It gets lonely in winter, when the road to the caldera is closed at Ten Mile Sno-park and visitors have to travel the last three miles by ski or snowmobile. (The Browns have a concession.) But it may be lonelier still between Nov. 1 and mid-December, and again mid-March to late April, when the resort schedules seasonal closures.
Thirteen rustic (and dog-friendly) cabins, of log and knotty-pine construction, sleep anywhere from two to 10 guests in bedrooms, utilizing lofts and pull-out futons. Each cabin has a fully furnished kitchen and a bathroom (no outhouses here); bedding and wood for the stove are provided. Many of the cabins were built between 1929 and 1934, although an A-frame was constructed as recently as 1975.
Lunch and dinner are served in a newly expanded restaurant throughout the summer. On Wednesdays, the resort offers an all-you-can-eat taco bar ($8) accompanied by $3 margaritas; on Fridays, the evening fare is barbecued-beef ribs; and on Saturdays, prime rib is served with all the fixings for $25. Reservations are required.
You can rent a boat and motor here, either to go fishing for those trophy browns — the state record 28-pounder was captured in these clear, 250-foot-deep waters, as have other trout in excess of 25 pounds — or to cross the lake to the site of the hot springs. Keep an eye out for wildlife, which may include black bear, deer and beaver as well as bald eagles and magnificent blue herons.
If you prefer to walk to the hot springs, you’ll follow a 2½-mile trail along the lakeshore. These springs are fickle. They may be covered when the lake water is high, and some trekkers carry a small camp shovel to dig a pool where the spring water (which can be as hot as 126 degrees) is cooled by mixing it with lake water.
The most impressive sight for many Paulina visitors is Paulina Falls, a quarter-mile walk west from the lodge.
Located where Paulina Creek spills over the caldera rim in a dense ponderosa-pine forest, the falls are actually two: a broad cataract on the north side of the creek canyon, a wispier spray on the south side. A well-maintained trail winds to the bottom of the falls.
En route to East Lake
Although it’s only five miles from the Paulina Lake Lodge to the East Lake Resort, a pair of diverting attractions en route make it seem much farther.
The first is the road that climbs to the top of Paulina Peak, just a quarter-mile from the lodge turnoff. Now closed until the summit is clear of snow — Karen Brown estimated it will open by the first of July — the 4-mile ascent is memorable for its 360-degree view, which on a clear day extends from California’s Mount Shasta all the way to Washington’s Mount Adams. It also takes in the broad swatch of basin and range country to the east and southeast.
Geologists say the Newberry volcano has erupted hundreds of times during the past 500,000 years, leaving a rich legacy of lava and ash flows, cinder cones, pumice and obsidian deposits easily detected from Paulina Peak. This caldera, they say, formed after two huge eruptions and subsequent collapses. A group of faults known as the Northwest Rift Zone, extending northwest from here in the direction of the Three Sisters, is largely embraced by the 25-mile-long national volcanic monument.
One of the most fascinating of its features is the Big Obsidian Flow, reached by a short side road two miles past the Paulina Peak road junction. Just 1,300 years ago, the blink of an eye in terms of geological history, lava spewed from the Newberry volcano in Oregon’s most recent eruption. A mile-long interpretive loop trail cuts across a corner of this flow. More than 170 million cubic yards of obsidian and pumice erupted from a vent about a mile south of the trailhead.
Lava and pumice deposits, some from a smaller cone known as Little Crater, divided Paulina and East lakes at least 12,000 years ago, geologists say. Pumice cones and obsidian flows may also be seen between the two. At 185 feet, East Lake is considerably shallower than its sister, but it is still a deep lake, one in which fish are just as prolific as in Paulina Lake.
Kathy and David Jones operate the East Lake Resort, located on the east shore about a mile before the road ends at the Cinder Hill Campground. The Joneses have 12 cabins and four “camping rooms” that sleep two to eight, as well as a general store, tackle shop and cafe open for breakfast and lunch daily except on Wednesday. Although dinner is not served here, some visitors prefer East Lake to Paulina because its facilities are a bit more contemporary.
Lava Lands Visitor Center
Most Central Oregon visitors are well-acquainted with the location of the Lava Lands Visitor Center, which serves as the principal exhibit hall and information hub for Newberry National Volcanic Monument. Just 12 miles south of the city, it operates between late April and early October with a full interpretive staff. It also has a bookstore and a couple of family-oriented trails.
One of those is the half-mile Trail of Molten Lands, geared to instructing children and their parents on the formation of volcanic landscapes. Nearby is the quarter-mile Trail of Whispering Pines through a pleasant woodland. Rangers lead hikes on both trails through mid-September.
Rising 500 feet above the visitor center is Lava Butte, a landmark for every southbound U.S. Highway 97 traveler. A paved road, barely wide enough for two cars to pass, spirals up to a U.S. Forest Service fire lookout tower at its summit. Although the upper story of the tower is closed to the public, the ground floor has some interpretive displays.
The view of the Cascades is spectacular from here. But visitors shouldn’t come just for the view. Interpretive signs accent a quarter-mile walk around the rim of Lava Butte’s intriguing crater, visible only from the mountaintop, and yield insights into geology and natural history. Meanwhile, golden-mantled ground squirrels and a variety of birds, from crows to Clark’s nutcrackers, assail visitors who might be slipping them highly discouraged handouts.
Also from the visitor center, a 4-mile paved road extends to the Benham Falls day-use area at the northwestern border of the monument. A broad, 0.7-mile trail to the falls connects with a parking area, accessible from the precincts of Century Drive, as well as to the Deschutes River Trail, which runs all the way from Sunriver to Bend.
Benham Falls is a particularly rugged set of rapids that cut a gorge through the lava flow produced by Lava Butte about 7,000 years ago. Expert kayakers occasionally run the Class V rapids here, although they are discouraged due to a high risk of danger.
Lava River Cave
A mile south of the Lava Lands Visitor Center, also just off U.S. Highway 97, is Lava River Cave, the longest uncollapsed lava tube in Oregon. Geologists say it was created after a river of molten lava drained from the channel it created, its sides eventually crusted over to form a roof a couple of hundred feet thick. A full mile long, the cave is open daily from May through mid-October. Inside, the temperature is a constant 42 degrees, so spelunkers should dress accordingly.
Rangers will check to make sure that you have a Northwest Forest Pass in your car and that you are carrying a flashlight and/or propane lantern. Forest passes are required throughout the national monument; although three-day passes are sold, the $30 annual pass is an excellent bargain. Lanterns are offered for rent at $4 per person.
There’s a lot of variety in the Lava River Cave, from the jumble of volcanic rocks through which the entry staircase descends, to the Echo Hall directly beneath U.S. Highway 97. Here, the cave is 50 feet wide and its ceiling 58 feet high, and conversations do, indeed, echo through the darkness. About 0.3 mile into the cave, the ceiling drops to 5½ feet and divides into a pair of interconnected passages. About 0.6 mile in, the floor begins to be covered by sand, which eventually creates a barrier preventing further exploration.
The least visited section of Newberry National Volcanic Monument is the Lava Cast Forest, accessed by unpaved Forest Road 9720, opposite the main Sunriver junction 2½ miles south of Lava River Cave. A 13-mile drive climaxes with a one-mile, self-guided interpretive trail across a 7,000-year-old lava flow from the Newberry volcano. The molten lava first enveloped a forest of mature ponderosa pines, and then quickly cooled, forming a mold. When the pines within these molds burned to charcoal or ash, all that remained were the casts.
For the geology buff, this might be a fascinating stop. For the average person, however, it won’t challenge a lakeside cabin, a hike to a waterfall and a prime-rib dinner as a weekend attraction.
John Gottberg Anderson
can be reached at janderson@bendbulletin.com.
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