Lava River Cave, Lava Butte, & Lava Beds

After our lovely trip to Descend on Bend, Meowmy and I headed to Lava River Cave with our new friend Stavros whom we met at Descend.  The Lava River Cave is part of the Newberry National Volcanic Monument in the Deschutes National Forest between La Pine and Bend in Oregon.  No pets are allowed in this mile-long lava tube, so they explored it without me, which took about two hours.  I heard it was really dark and cold inside and that they went so deep that when they turned the flashlights off, it was eerie and darker than one can imagine!

Afterwards, Stavros and Meowmy headed to Lava Butte, a cinder cone on the northwest flank of Newberry Volcano.  They headed to the top of the cone where they had a 360* view of the land and enjoyed a stroll around the whole rim.  I heard there’s a fire lookout at top because you can see for miles and miles!

Saying good-bye is always hard, but this is where we parted ways with Stavros, who headed North while we headed South.  We spent the night in Hagelstein County Park near Klammath Falls, which is a great place to overnight if you’re looking for free camping in this area.

The next morning we headed to Lava Beds National Monument in northeastern California.  It’s definitely off-season at the beginning of October because we barely saw another person or vehicle the whole time we were exploring this beautiful volcanic park.  We stopped at Devils Homestead Flow and Fleener Chimneys, plus Meowmy did some easy caving, exploring Merrill Cave, Skull Cave, Sentinel Cave, and Valentine Cave.  I even got to explore some of the lava near Valentine Cave before we headed out and made our way towards our next stop, Lassen Volcanic National Park, which I’ll be blogging about soon!

The Journey To Descend On Bend

Meowmy was really excited for the 3-day vanlife camping event called Descend On Bend, which takes place an hour southeast of Bend, Oregon.  She decided to make a 10 day trip out of it, with stops along the way there and back.

We left on Tuesday, September 25th and worked our way North to Burney Falls.  Since no pets are allowed on the trail to the falls, Meowmy went by herself to see these magnificent falls while I stayed in the RV. We spent the evening boondocking off a forest road near McCloud, which was great cuz I got to roam around the trees chasing small animals while Meowmy made dinner.

The next morning we headed to McCloud Falls near Mount Shasta, which is a three-tiered waterfall off Highway 89.  There’s a nice trail you can walk from the Upper Falls to the Middle and Lower Falls, where there was a bunch of fisherman. From there, we passed through Weed and Mount Shasta, then enjoyed lunch at Veterans Memorial Park in Klammath Falls.

We drove the final stretch to Bend and found a great overnight spot next to a park where Meowmy took me for a walk before heading to the Descend pre-party at Silver Moon Brewing.  The parking lot was a vanlife haven with an assortment of Vanagons, Sprinters, Promasters, and even a huge Class A!  Meowmy had fun walking around meeting people and seeing their van builds, all while enjoying some awesome beer.

Thursday morning we headed South through La Pine and then East towards the Outback Station, where Descend Cinco was taking place.  Hundreds of RV’s, vans, trucks, and cars ended up camping at this high desert oasis near the famous Hole-In-The-Ground in Fort Rock Basin, a maar field of former volcanic activity.  Meowmy chose a nice shady spot in the trees and made friends with our neighbors for the next three days.  These guys from Portland had an awesome old fire truck from Germany that they remodeled; it even had sirens!

Descend is a cool event with live music, potluck, BBQ, raffle, swap meet, sunrise yoga, salsa contest, ladies cocktail hour, syncrorun, and bonfires at night.  There’s even a huge teepee in the main community area!  Meowmy attempted to ride her bike to the Hole-In-The-Ground on Friday and ended up bailing hard due to no traction on the sandy dirt.  We met tons of cool people and had an absolute blast, so Meowmy said we are coming back next year!