Lava Tube, Waterfall, Hot Spring, and STUCK!

Monday, June 13, 2022 Bend, Oregon

Sunday we left Robin and her adorable log cabin to drive west in the rain, at one point even having to pull off and wait for the driving rain and hail to abate so I could see the road. Spent the night in a beautiful, isolated dispersed site in the Deschutes National Forest outside of Bend, OR. 

Monday we explored the Newberry National Volcanic Monument's Lava River Cave, a 1 mile long lava tube. It was so cool! First had to disinfect my earrings, rings, and hiking shoes, and then don these oh so attractive galoshes, since they had all been in previous caves and could carry White Nose Fungus to the bats in this cave - which would be fatal to them.

Ice from dripping water

Lava drips

Then it was time for the Paulina Waterfalls above ground.

The drive to Umpqua NF

And fire's aftermath

Charming bridge and steep, slippery climb to Umpqua Hot Springs

but so worth it

Finally headed to Nate and Rux's in the Eugene area. GPS, set to avoid freeways,  took us down some paved National Forest roads with beautiful views

but then the roads were unpaved,  and became narrower, more twisty,  and climbing as we crossed over the mountains until this happened

Stuck! I panicked as the rear swung towards the drop off to the river and we were firmly stuck. We were without cell signal and hadn't seen sign of others for the last fifty miles or so as we crossed the western Cascades.  After an hour of digging out the snowpack from under the chassis and placing branches down for traction, Matthew finally drove us out and we proceeded the rest of the way off the mountain in the dark, finally arriving at our destination much later than we had planned.