We took a short but steep dayhike to visit the old Fire Tower up on the top of Schonshin Butte, a volcanic cinder cone with stunning views, at Lava Beds National Monument.
After a few sprinkles of rain in the night, that pattered pleasantly on the roof of the car, we woke up to clear skies and the promise of a fine day. We cooked up some breakfast and packed the car. We were only planning on spending the one night here in the park. Yesterday was cave exploration day, and today was our hike up to the top of Schonshin Butte. We decided to get the uphill climb over with early, before the sun made it too hot.
We drove to the trailhead parking lot and got the daypack ready. It was only a 0.7 mile hike to the top, with about 450 feet of elevation gain. A bit steep, in other words, but not all that long. Still, the butte was visible from all over the monument, and surely commanded a fine view of the surrounding lava beds.
There were dead trees near the trailhead. Although a large portion of the park had burned in a wildfire relatively recently, the top of the butte didn’t burn. I suspect that the historic fire tower was afforded additional protection by the fire crews. Luckily for us, it was still cool, so the lack of shade as we climbed wasn’t an issue.
The trail split when we approached the summit. The left fork was steeper, but led directly to the fire tower itself, which sat on the highest part of the cone’s rim. We chose to get the climb over with right away. Meanwhile, the views were getting excellent. This entire park was only a small portion of the massive Medicine Lake Shield Volcano, a vast expanse of lava flows that were extremely wide and nearly flat. Its total volume made it the largest volcano in the Cascade Range, but you barely saw it from a distance. Impressive, and you couldn’t even tell that you were on it at all. This little butte was only a pimple on its surface, in comparison.
The fire tower was closed when we got there, but the walkway around it was perfectly fine. We took plenty of photos and videos of the excellent views. Mount Shasta could even be seen in the far distance to the west. Down below us was the depression in the center of the cone, which was largely overgrown by small trees and bushes. This place last erupted many thousands of years ago.
All around us was the evidence of volcanic action. Domes and bumps and volcanic vents abounded. Chunky black lava flows were all over the place. Older flows had more vegetation, while younger ones were fresh and raw. We could also detect the openings of several lava tubes from up there, but as they weren’t shown on the park’s map, there was no way of knowing how deep they were, or if you could enter them anyway. We took many photos as we continued around the rim on the main trail.
After that, it was time to head back to the car. We were the only other people on the butte that day, which made it even more special. Yet another reason to get up early and start hiking! Vicki definitely enjoyed the hike down more than the way up, but that’s just her. I liked it both ways.
We had at least one more hike that morning, but it was mostly flat, We wanted to check out some native pictographs made by the Modoc Indians long ago. But that hike can be found on the next page.
For a topographic map of the hike see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the trek see my Flickr Page
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