A travel day today, as I drove north from Crater Lake up to my hotel in the very small city of Condon in North-Central Oregon (population 682!). It's the kind of place that everywhere closes at 6 pm (just when I arrived!) - so the only place I could still eat was at an Elks Lodge (I didn't even know they were open to the public, I've never been in one before - but the food was actually delicious!). I broke up the trip with a couple of stops - the second I'll talk about tomorrow, but the first stop was at Newberry National Volcanic Monument. Basically, this is an area where volcanic activity has left this surreal landscape. I was only planning a quick stop here - but actually stayed a bit longer by first driving to the top of a lava butte (and yes, I had to look up the pronunciation of butte - a word I don't think I've ever spoken out loud before!) and then taking a brief hike across a lava flow. The landscape is fascinating and otherworldly - it's no surprise to find out that NASA astronauts have trained here in the past. I love me some geology. This is an area worthy of coming back to and spending more time exploring - there is apparently a lot more to see here.
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