Monday, September 11, 2017

Volcanic Adventures

Oregon is just chock full of interesting stuff, both natural and manmade.  I could wander around all summer every year and never run out of neat places to visit.  This is Mount Thielsen, near Crater Lake, rising through the smoke.  The pointed summit is a volcanic plug that has been exposed as the softer rock around it eroded away.

This is Clearwater Falls, on the North Umpqua scenic route from Diamond Lake to Roseburg.  I spent most of a day on this route, hiking to several different cascades.  Blow this pic up to see the cool mossy rocks in the middle of the falls.

Watson Falls.  293 feet high.  Fairly short but serious hike up to this viewpoint.

This area, north and northwest of Crater Lake, was buried in ash by the eruption of Mount Mazama that created the lake about 6500 years ago.  This roadcut exposes a wall of the ash.  

Lots of geology hereabouts!  Toketee Falls drops through a gorge of columnar basalt, a legacy of widespread volcanism that poured lava over much of Oregon tens of millions of years ago.  The trail up here goes through fine old growth forest.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home