The Newberry National Volcanic Monument is split between a few areas, the main sections being 23 miles apart south of Bend, OR. The south section’s main attractions are the Paulina Falls, the Big Obsidian Flow (not to be confused with the teeny tiny one located who knows where), and two lakes, Paulina Lake and East Lake. You could also drive to the top of Paulina Peak for views…but with Peter behind the wheel….well, if you’ve been reading this blog long enough you know the drill, Peter has a punch list, and if it’s not on the punch list it won’t be added to the punch list and don’t ask again about stopping.

The drive from the entrance to the shores of East Lake will take you up 2,200 feet in elevation. We drove this last year, the day after the road was plowed for snow. It was startling to see how much more snow accumulated as you ascended toward the top.

So let’s start with Paulina Falls. There are two places to view the falls: one from the top, and one from the bottom. Peter has a strong perspective on the best place to photograph waterfalls (I know, hard to believe, it isn’t like he’s photographed 5,392…but he is getting close). He immediately chose the trail that led down. And as you know, what goes down must come up. We got there a bit too late as the sun had started to hit the main waterfall, but there was still a piece off to the side that could be photographed in the shade. By the time we finished at the lower platform, we decided not to expend our very limited energy to hike to the upper platform.

As an aside, there is nothing to zap your daily reservoir of energy than a hotel smoke alarm going off at 4:41 IN THE MORNING. It’s eye opening to know what articles of clothing you would put on knowing you are going to have to stand outside in the cold dark for an indeterminate amount of time. I will say, while my attire was questionable, I did manage to leave with all of my photography gear.

Next up was the Big Obsidian Lava Flow. I loved this spot. While I had pictured a hillside covered with dark shiny black glass like boulders, it had many of those interspersed with pumice rocks. It was a lava flow after all. This spot also involved climbing many, many, many stairs to view the flows from the top. Because we had bright sunny cloudless skies, I enjoyed photographing the boulders on the bottom more. I could get close and play with making abstracts with the different shades of gray and the tonal striations.

We thought we would grab lunch at the cafe on Paulina Lake, but it happened to be Taco Bar day, which is normally Peter’s nirvana, but there was no chicken, only two kinds of beef, ground and sautéed, so we opted to eat a protein bar on the shores of the lake while dodging a very friendly dog who wanted a nibble.

The northern section of the Monument has the nice Lava Lands Visitor center and a paved one mile trail up the lava flow. There is also a 1.6 mile and 500 feet elevation gain road to the top of Lava Butte that you can walk or pay $5 for a shuttle to the top.

You can also hike to Benham Falls via a 9 mile trail that will take you 4 hours round trip. Or, you can drive there directly via a southern route which takes 35 minutes and is 18 miles.