We headed north out of Crater Lake toward Newberry National Volcanic Monument, even though our plan called for heading south. We decided last night that as long as we were making up for the missing parts of our 2023 Oregon Volcano trip, we should also do a quick revisit of Paulina Peak, which Vicki and I climbed. More accurately, I climbed and Vicki almost climbed. She utterly petered out about 100 yards from the summit. Quite simply, we were there too early in the season, in June, and the road wasn’t open yet due to snow. Our plan for today was a quick Drive-By Summit Attempt.
The Newberry Caldera wasn’t all that far, maybe an hour, so we headed there strait away. Along the way in, we stopped at beautiful Paulina Falls, even though it wasn’t really part of the plan. We’re waterfall addicts. We really can’t help ourselves. And there are no known twelve-step programs for this affliction. We needed our fix.
Afterward, we ignored everything else in this lovely park, and drove directly up the gravel road to the summit of Paulina Peak. I sometimes wish that I was a Peakbagging Addict, but the truth is that I’ve bypassed many an easy summit while on the PCT. I’m not sure whether this qualifies me as a Laziness Addict, however.
There were some fine views to be had up there at 7984 feet elevation. The weather was fine and the air was clear that morning. We could see all around us. So we posed for a few celebratory photos and selfies, just to prove we were up there.
The Newberry Caldera was very wide, about five miles in diameter, and contained two large lakes. Campers and fishermen brought their RV’s and boats here for serious Summer fun. Also, it contained the lava flow known as Big Obsidian Flow, which was huge, and had large chunks of lovely black obsidian glass within it. The only place to get a proper view of the flow was up here on top of Paulina Peak.
We hung out for a while on the summit, and walked from one side of the parking area to the other, scoping out different viewpoints and taking far too many photos and videos. I won’t burden you with them here.
All too soon, it was time to move on. We drove back out to US 97 and turned left, headed south. Our next stop was Lassen Volcanic National Park, where we planned to finally finish seeing it, just like we did today at Newberry and yesterday at Crater Lake. As a bonus, we’d be back in California, right back where we started from. It was the place where we belonged.
For a topographic map of the hike see my CalTopo Page
For LOTS more photos of the trek see my Flickr Page
<< Back to Part 9 Onward to Part 11 >> 
hikingtales.com 