We ended our day at Crater Lakes in a motel, our fifth motel/hotel of the trip. It was a log cabin themed affair with live bullets embedded in the clear cover and seat of the throne. Classy. At any rate it was clean and after partaking of what they called a continental breakfast we were off.
Our first stop was the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, one of our country's youngest, created in 1990 if I recall correctly. It has a large obsidian rock flow. Obsidian being very sharp is often used as surgical scalpels, particularly for the eye as it is superior to steel and gives clean cuts that heal with little scarring. I tested this theory on my finger tip. Yup, it's sharp.
We did a short hike through the flow with Ranger intern Ashley then returned a short while later as I had forgotten a camera.
They didn't participate in the Junior Ranger program, but we had fun nonetheless.
After we were done exploring we headed North, hoping to see the highest point in Oregon (11,239'). We spent the night, figuratively, in the shadow of Mt Hood at the Nottingham campground. It was called Robin Hood a few years ago but it got sacked by the East Fork of the Hood river. We grabbed one of the last two sites available. Always tough to find camping on weekends. The RVer's take over everything with all their junk in tow. (Sorry, Pam and Dan).
We had a nice fire and paid the Sheriff the $12 dollar tax when he came collecting. Still a great deal! We had a good night, though I was awakened at 12:30AM to the sound of something brushing against our screened windows. I kicked the side of the cab and whatever it was moved on. We both awoke again a little later to crawl deeper under the covers. A cold night, morning temp was 40 degrees.
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