Movin' on up to 1st grade!
Next year Abbie will be going to all-day kindergarten! Today was her end of year ceremony.
In the winter they do not plow the roads past Mount Bachelor. Then around mid may usually before Memorial Day weekend they get the roads clear. Still lots of snow on the peaks and beside the roads but makes for a nice drive. Today we left bend, and it was 73 degrees. Up past Mt Bachelor it got down to 52 so a 20 degree drop from town only 20 minutes away.
After South Ice Cave, we moved onto two other close geological formations in this part of south central oregon. The first is known as Fort Rock, which is an example of a Tuff Ring, and the Second is called Hole in the Ground which is classed as a Maar or Explosion Crater. You will see from the photo's that while the names are not all that original they do fit well. Both are examples of where lava came to the surface and hit some body of water. Normally when lava hits the surface it forms a cinder cone like Pilot Butte in Bend. In cases where it hits water on the way to the surface, the reaction can be explosive.
Fort Rock
From Wikipedia (which sites the original source)
Fort Rock was created when basalt magma rose to the surface and encountered the wet muds of a lake bottom. Powered by a jet of steam, molten basalt was blown into the air, creating a fountain of hot lava particles and frothy ash. The pieces and blobs of hot lava and ash rained down around the vent and formed a saucer-shaped ring (called a tuff Ring) sitting like an island in the lake waters. Steam explosions also loosened angular chunks of black and red lava rock comprising the valley floor. These blocky inclusions are incorporated into the fine-grained tuff layers at Fort Rock. Waves from the lake waters eroded the outside of the ring, cutting the steep cliffs into terraces 66 feet (20 m) above the floor of Fort Rock Valley.
Hold in the Ground
So how was it formed? Basaltic magma intruding near the surface flashed ground water to steam, which blew out overlying rock and soil, along with some juvenile material. As material slid into the hole formed, it closed the vent and the process repeated, eventually forming the huge hole.Blocks as large as 26 ft in size were flung as far as 2.3 mi from the crater.
Watch the video. If you look closely you can see the two boys with red walking down to the center of the crater to give you an idea of the size.
Today we did a family car outing. Our first destination was cave called 'South Ice Cave' where May is supposed to be the prime month to go. Snow has melted off the roads, but still cold enough in the cave where there is frozen water on the floor and icicles from the ceiling.
The icicles were not as impressive as some pictures I have seen probably due to the recent warm temps but still pretty neat. You can see the stalagmites of ice build up from the dripping ice in the shorts along with the frozen floor in a couple of the galleries in the photos. Overall the cave was only a few hundred yards in length with some really nice big open galleries. Boys loved it.
The boys wanted to go climbing again and this time Abbie decided she wanted to try it too!
I had to travel to the southern California area for work, so I we bought an extra ticket for Abbie to go down and visit her grandparents for the week. She went to Disney Land with Lulu and Auntie Erin, saw her great grand parents, visited with her cousins and had an all-around spectacular week!
Hunter on his new long board!