Maria Lechuga- July 13, 2018


July 13, 2018
            This morning we woke up at 6:30 am and headed towards soda creek where we did service work with Tom Walker, a fish Biologist. My job was to rake the needles from the pine trees on the floor and transfer them to broken down soil. Other students then replanted trees on the area. We also watered trees and pine trees that were already planted on the soil. This is important to know because we live in an area where this knowledge could be used. This was very hard work, it was extremely hot. After soda creek we got to go to Lava Butte to learn about the volcanoes of Newberry. Jim Elliot, the head forest ranger, and Tony Sivinile forest ranger gave us the tour of Lava Butte. I learned that Newberry erupted 7 thousand years ago. Newberry volcano rocks are red because the iron oxides. This means that the volcano rusts over time. We got to go to the lookout tower where Joey Hudson gave an introduction about himself and his job up in the lookout. His job is to spot fires around the area using the fire finder that is 111 years old. This is his 23rd season working at Volcano Butte and 12 years working on the fire crew. After the Lava Butte we went to Benham Falls and hiked to go see the waterfall. It was a hot day that I wanted to get into the water, but we were not able to because of safety purposes. We also went to Lava River Cave and got a tour of it. The tour guides stayed late to provide private tour which was exceptionally thoughtful of them doing. We walked a 2-mile round trip into the lava cave. The temperature of the cave was much different from the temperature outside. It felt refreshing going into the cave after having a long day in the sun. The lava cave was the most interesting activity we have done so far on this trip. I enjoyed it very much because it was a different type of nature that we usually see.
Soda Creek








Lava River Cave 

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