Scorched earth

This is a lava forest.

Or, it WAS a forest, then lava came and made it not a forest.

I really could not say, as I do not know what constitutes a "forest".

And I can not explain how lava erupted from this volcano, poured down the mountain and wiped out all of the living things in it's wake.

And how; as the lava cooled it formed hills and valleys of hardened lava.

And how; nothing will ever grow here, because dry lava rocks aren't so good for the soil.

But, as I am not a scientist, and more specifically a scientist of lava, I can not explain any of those things.

I really can't even make claims that any of it is true.

It's pretty neat though.

Regardless of the science involved.

The final frontier: Gabriel Burian-Mohr

As this will be the third post about Crater Lake, I thought I would have to be brief, because everyone would be sick of nature pictures. However, Lindsey & Lee Ann decided to only comment on one fourth of the pictures they took, so I feel no need to cut myself short.

This is Diamond lake, we were supposed to meet one of the other VISTAs here (they have been mentioned before for their issues with anger). Said individual was a no-show.

This is a painting done directly on the wall. Of all the things I could/should(not) say about this painting, and it's similarly rendered and themed counterparts, I will just mention how happy it makes me when people paint frames on the wall.

Yes, it's pretty.

A great deal of time was spent trying to decide which trail to hike.

Nobody wanted to look like a chump and hike the "popular" trails.

Also, nobody wanted to be held responsible for choosing the trail, if the trail they had chosen turned out to suck.

I think we picked a good one.

It provided several different views.

And a hike that provided a slight workout .

I told Evelyn that Crater Lake was created when a meteor hit the earth at the exact same moment that a volcano erupted. The story may have also involved aliens and Sasquatch or possibly Sacajawea.

Evelyn totally believed me for a minute.

I think my web of lies may have offended some tourist.

Me and Ben discussed more fun/dangerous ways to get back down the hill.

The thermo-chemical reaction from the meteor-volcano collision that created Crater Lake also created a unique ecosystem that exist nowhere else. Said ecosystem has created a beast much like the Loch Ness Monster, only bigger, uglier, and meaner.

This was supposed to be a picture of said monster.

We all stood around for a while trying to decide which trail to hike next.

We decided to take the trail that leads to the pirate ship.

Several wrong turns led us to this waterfall instead.

Much to the dismay of some VISTAs; Ben drank the water. He didn't die, so we'll assume the water was fine.

We didn't have enough time to do the pirate ship hike. I don't remember who to blame for this.

We left in search of our other Crater Lake bus, which contained the hikeaphobic members of our party.

On the drive back; it is possible/probable that me and Ben's antics started wearing on the other passengers.

It's hard to say though.

Ben spent most of the drive back trying to convince Evelyn that he should teach her tennis. Or maybe he was just trying to convince her to wear a tennis skirt. Again, it's hard to say.

While Lindsey was sleeping we drew on her face.

We stopped off at Jane's house. She has several horses.

Jane made the horses do tricks for us.

This appears to be a view from a fallen bicycle. I don't think I fell off my bike until a week or so from now.

I will conclude this triptic of Crater Lake posts with this photo of a bush.

A stranger in a strange land: Benjamin A. Brady

I’m Ben. I controlled an awesome cam for a day while we were on a trip to Crater Lake. I seem happy here. Apparently, I’m pretty dumb…as you’ll see from my photos.

I don’t know what I was taking a picture of here. There is a good chance I was taking a picture of the constant epiphany I have been experiencing here in Oregon. Ironically that epiphany has been telling me that I should have spent the year in another New England state.

Here’s David and Gabe. Gabe is wearing a cowboy shirt so that he doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb in hicktown. Thankfully they can’t see what Gabe thinks in his head.

Here’s Evelyn. She wanted to climb mountains on Saturday.

Here we are “hiking,” the older Vistas took a minivan for a car tour. This trail made my feet dirty because I wore sandals, proving the whole “me being kind of dumb” thing.

Just think, Sasquatch is out there. Actually, I believe that he was killed while they were filming that documentary Harry and the Hendersons.

Here’s Lee Ann and Lindsey (Evelyn is in back). They comprise the girl team.

Here we are taking a quick break. I think David is giving us the sideways finger. No no, he’s just reflecting sunlight in mirrors to make the picture blurry. Why does he have a mirror?

I don’t know why I was taking so many pictures of myself. Honestly…I don’t know what is wrong with me, but something is amiss. And my face is crooked.

I think all the low blood sugars made my brain retarded. Doctors said it would happen.

Here’s the girl team. They tried to keep segregated (the boy team hung on the ugly side of the mountain).

Jane’s our boss, she’s really nice and we censor what we say around her (most of the time).

David’s pulling a Jeremiah Johnson and not shaving.

It was pretty at Crater Lake.

This is an island in the middle. I think that it’s called Narnia. It doesn’t matter what it’s called because it’s protected by the state and I’ll never get to run around on it.

Here’s the girl team in the observation tower. They apparently won. It was fifteen steps I didn’t care about climbing. I was reading text panels and learning things instead.

When we were walking down, these people were walking up. We totally won the race to the top and back. I don’t really know what they were doing even bothering anymore.

“I love barbershop quartets!” Who is thinking about barbershop while they are hiking? I was thinking about eating donuts.

I know what you’re thinking. It’s only one big jump and you are swimming in a restricted body of water.

Looking admiralish is very important on such excursions.

Apparently, Evelyn is leading us on a very bumpy road. Look out Magellan! Evelyn is an explorer not to be reckoned with.

Gabe seems upset that the boy team lost, also I said that I would not be attending the Poison concert on Thursday. He said it would melt my face off. I said that if it came to it, I would feed Ce Ce DeVille his guitar. I hate that guy.

I drank some water from the waterfall. My blood sugar was around four hundred and even though Lee Ann said it was a bad idea, I didn’t care. What is it going to do? Give me rickets?

Here’s Evelyn trying to lead the girl’s team to a second hiking victory. I didn’t care. I was suffering from rickets, or whatever drinking dirty water gives you.

This girl wasn’t in our group, but she led the girls to new heights. It wasn’t very safe, so she was deemed stupid for risking it.

Gabe is still swearing about me not going to Poison. Apparently, I’m not thinking in a team mentality.

The thing is I’m probably not thinking at all (it hurts my head).

Here’s Evelyn patting one of Jane’s horses. Won’t bother with any jokes about the metaphor that the horse represents, but I am grinding my teeth and asking a lot of questions about when we are leaving.

Here’s Gabe getting ready to blow up Roseburg with the pipe bombs he packed.

He said he’d save his “Kevorkian” for another day. He needs to do it by mail anyways