Summer Kickoff in Lava Land

This last weekend was our second annual summer kickoff campout after Caleb finished school on Wednesday. For this year's adventure, we decided to take a trek to middle-Oregon (or Middle-Earth as we discovered) to the Newberry National Volcanic Monument and Lava Lands.
The boys have been fascinated by volcanos for some time, so when we stumbled across it online, it seemed like the perfect place to go. Only miles outside of Bend, we wandered the Trail of the Molten Land where an ancient volcano spewed magma all over the countryside. Now a huge wasteland of volcanic rock, Jake made the comment that it was sort of like walking through Mordor in the Lord of the Rings. Barely anything could grow out there through the rock - although after all these thousands of years some were managing to. I was especially impressed with a lone pine tree that protruded up from the top of a rather high outcropping. "Nature finds a way".
It was really a quite impressive sight, especially with the Sisters in the backdrop.
After that, we brought along our warm jackets and torches to journey the length of Oregon's longest lava tube - the lava lake cave. Formed when a river of molten lava created a channel while flowing from the ancient volcano, tourists can now take a self-guided tour of the one-mile length of it. A constant 42 1/2 degrees Fahrenheit, it was extremely chilly down there. Huge ice crystals were even growing on the floor of the cave. Unfortunately, the pitch blackness didn't lend itself well to picture taking, so I didn't get any shots of the interior, but it was really interesting. Returning to our Lord of the Rings theme, Jake made the observation that it felt like we were traversing the mines of Moria down there. he he (someone clearly needed to rewatch some LOTR and get their fix!)
After all the lava lands fun, we made camp just north of Bend in Tumalo. The campsite was completely full (thank goodness we had pre-booked online).
It also had an amazing little woodchip park for the kids to run around on. I guess with all that state park revenue they can afford a set up like that. I'd never seen a playground like that at any of the KOA campgrounds I remember going to as a child, let alone a state run one. (the token pic of me to prove that I was in fact a part of this adventure)
The rest of the time at camp was full of the usual camping pleasantries - campfire cookin' of foil dinners and hot dogs, s'mores,
("the shiz")
and rock collecting (hey, that's a usual pleasantry when you are a little boy!). It was a lot of fun and very relaxing.
In the morning, we wished Jake a happy Father's Day with his favorite, French toast for breakfast and a hike by the river nearby. The boys had also made him little pictures and sang "I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home". It was really sweet. I should say that it was a very sweet, yet very manly, outdoorsy Father's Day. We can't wait to go camping again - although next time, I may bring along some earplugs for bedtime. We discovered what a deep sleeper Caleb really is, as Brendan saws logs like a lumberjack! At least two out of four of us got a good night's rest.