Chop Chop Billy Goat

We spent about a week at Cinder Hill Campground, in Newberry National Volcanic Monument, along the shores of East Lake, which was formed when the Newberry Volcano’s caldera collapsed. We got an amazing campsite on top of the hill above the lake, with a nice flat area right on the lake where we left the canoe. There were lots of awesome volcanic rocks around the campsite, such as obsidian, a sharp, glassy black rock, and pumice, a white or grey bubbly rock that was so light it floated. There was also something else strange around our campsite: crazy chipmunks! Both Ma and Pa had chipmunks climb on them and one even nibbled Pa’s toe!

We spent most of our time canoeing around the lake, checking out beaches, cliffs and other cool things. One day, we paddled to the hot springs on the other side of the lake. The first springs were barely warm, and we were pretty disappointed, but we paddled a little farther and we found a spring that was pretty hot. We also spent one afternoon hanging out on a beautiful sand beach.

One day, Pa, Little kid, and I went to a lava tube, which is a long cave formed when lava flows through a channel and the top hardens. It was super cool! My favorite part was where a sign said that the highway crossed over the lava tube there!

We also went to the Big Obsidian Flow, which was basically a big mound of obsidian and pumice. After that, we drove to Paulina Falls, an amazing twin water fall. We had a picnic lunch there before heading back up to the car.

The next day, we moved to another campground not too far away, called La Pine State Park. From there, we took the Jetta to a trail that went to Paulina Plunge, a natural rock water slide. Little kid and I had a ton of fun sliding down the slick rocks, even though we did get a little cold. Pa also went! But then it started to sprinkle a bit, so we packed up and started heading back. The sprinkle quickly turned into pounding rain, and for a few minutes, it actually hailed! When we got back to the car, we were soaked.