We arrived at Newberry National Volcanic Monument as part of our Cascades Volcano Tour and decided to check out the black glass at Big Obsidian Flow, a large lava flow within the Newberry Caldera.
We woke up early and drove north from our camp near Crater Lake, and arrived at the park before noon. We had time to explore a bit that day. As we entered the park, we stopped along the way to view Paulina Falls, a large waterfall on Paulina Creek, which drained out of the huge caldera. This gave us a chance to stretch our legs after the long drive.
Continuing on, we discovered that the park’s Visitor Center was still closed for Winter. During the second week of June! Yes, 2023, was a very big snow year, but this was ridiculous. Continuing along the main road, we discovered locked gates on side roads leading to other campgrounds. We didn’t like the look of this. We wanted to camp here! We decided to put off the Obsidian adventure a bit longer, and kept on driving. Eventually, we saw that the road was open to the boat ramp on Paulina Lake, and the Little Crater Campground was along that road. The sign said that the campground was closed, but there were plenty of people camping there. Hmmm… We asked around, and supposedly the rangers didn’t care, and they weren’t taking any money. Only one bathroom was open, too, the one by the boat ramp. Oh well. We’d have to walk. So we chose a nice spot right on the lake and claimed it for our own. Let’s face it: This park was not busy at all. But this is precisely the way we like it.
We felt much better after securing a spot for the night. It was time to check out Big Obsidian Flow! There was a trailhead there, and we parked in the lot with a few other folks. I grabbed the day-pack and away we went.
The trail began with a long stairway. This was the lower end of the lava flow, and it was well over fifty feet thick, even at the lower edge. It was much thicker toward the source, which was up high within the caldera, just below the crater’s rim. The interpretive display near the base told us about volcanic glass, how pumice with tiny bubbles was white, pumice with big bubbles was black, and that obsidian has no bubbles. It was black because of the presence of tiny magnetite particles, like a drop of ink in a glass of clear water. Technically, it was all glassy, meaning that the silicon dioxide molecules were disordered, not crystalline, and were technically a liquid, albeit an extremely viscous one at room temperature. Of course, when it was hot this entire mound of lava was fluid enough to ooze out of the earth and make its way down the slope of the crater, cracking and chunking off boulders of pumice and obsidian as it cooled.
As we climbed, the views got better. There were a couple of small ponds down below the flow, and the flow itself appeared to be made of several different flows, as if the earth belched forth several times over the years. According to the forest service, this flow is only 1300 years old, making it the most recent lava flow in Oregon! This was determined by radiocarbon dating analysis of trees that got trapped within the flow. Interestingly, not all of the rock was obsidian; most of it was on the pumice end of the spectrum. All in all, obsidian is a relatively rare item throughout the world, and was a high-demand trade item due to its utility in making knives, axes, and arrowheads.
The trail formed a loop up higher, so we chose to go in the counterclockwise direction. It only climbed about two hundred feet total, so it wasn’t a difficult hike by any means. On the north-facing slopes we even ran into some melting snow! We lucked out and the trail wasn’t entirely blocked. There wasn’t much, but it was just the right amount to text photos home to people sweltering in the June heat.
It wasn’t easy to tell, but there was a side trail up high, and it led to a flat area with a bench. We got fine views of Paulina Lake and Paulina Peak. From this perspective, it was hard to say how much more lava there was above us on the flow. It wasn’t until I got home and checked out my GPS track that I realized that the trail covered only the tiniest fraction of the entirety of Big Obsidian Flow. It really was big!
We decided that this was the perfect place to stop and eat our lunch. We picked up chunks of obsidian and checked them out. We took some photos and videos. We even met a few other tourists like ourselves. Great spot.
After that, it was time to descend to the car via the other half of the loop. I took some GoPro videos as I hiked along. Sometimes these wide-angle videos make things appear to be more impressive than they really are, but hopefully not this time. The idea was that I could document the different types of rock (pumice vs obsidian) along the way.
All in all, without the nicely-built trail, crossing the flow would have been a very difficult hike. There were plenty of potentially loose boulders that could shift underfoot, and there was always the chance of sharp glass to cut you if you fell. This wasn’t the smooth lava like you find in Hawaii. Oh no, not at all.
After seeing a cute little Pika in the talus near the bottom of the long cement stairway, we arrived back at the car. Thus far, we were pretty happy about coming to this park, even if a lot of it was still closed. Then we drove off to explore a bit more of it while the afternoon lasted.
For a topographic map of the hike see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the trek see my Flickr Page
Little Crater Trail >>
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