Thursday's visit to Lava Lands

On Thursday, we drove a short distance to a part of the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, Lava Lands Visitor Center. This is the location of the Lava Butte Lookout and a couple of hiking trails - one on the lava bed there.

When we entered the area and had our Golden Age Passport checked by the Ranger, she recommended the shuttle ride to the top of the Butte ($3/person) - we asked if we could hike to the top of the cinder cone (we'd done one cinder cone hike at Lassen - https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/06/hiking-out-around-butte-lake-campground.html), and she said that we could, but that there isn't a trail, but rather we'd be on the road with the shuttles. She recommended "The Trail of the Molten Lands", so we decided to do that one...

A map of the trail

It was an asphalt paved trail in the midst of lava beds... it would have been better if we had come very early in the morning!

That's the Lava Butte cinder cone

Another picture of the cinder cone - other hikers are at the bottom of the picture to the left, and barely visible at the top center is the shuttle bus, giving perspective of the size.

Looking out toward mountains in the west.

As we were heading back toward the parking lot, this picture shows where the lava flow stopped - there is a pine forest there.

We enjoyed visiting Lava Lands, but would definitely recommend visiting on a cooler day (it was in the 80s on the day we went) or to go early in the morning.