6-24-2026

Today was an intresting day, we went to the visitors center of the lava lands, and Alex Enna, the partnership project manager, arranged the whole thing, as well as what we'll be doing on Friday. Christine Hughes was the backbone of the information that was given to us before we went up the mountain. She gave us some insight into the land and explained the bigger mountains in one kind of on its own is called Mt. Bachelor, and the ones next to it are his sisters, North, Middle, and South. After that, she asked us if we knew how these mountains are formed, and said that the Cascade Wanda suka plate is getting pushed towards us and is hitting the core of the earth, and the magma from that needs to rise somewhere, and so it decides to go up, and that's how these mountains are formed, and then explained that over 100 and millions of years the plates have moved 25 miles. She also told me some of the geology from the aftermath of everything. The mountain we went up is called a cinder cone volcano because of the rocks that are left. Most of the rocks up there were red, which means they have a lot of iron, holes, gas, and this one has less silica. She had a little demonstration of all the rocks she showed us 6 the 1st one is igneous rock, which is mostly found here on the ring of fire. The second one is basalt, which makes up most of the earth; the 3rd rock is obsidian, which is high in silica; the 4th rock is the volcanic bomb, which is made of tephra. They get their spiral from their spin in the air when a volcano erupts, and the 5th rock is pumice, which is this very light rock that can float in water because it is made up of a lot of gas. The last rock she showed us is cinder. After the presentation, we explored their visitor center, and I kind of went nuts in their gift shop, but afterwards I we ate some lunch, headed up the mountain on a shuttle, and we walked on this trail around the hole of the mountain where the explosion happened. 

After this, we went down the road to the lava caves, where Karen Walsh, who has worked with the Discovery Northwest Partnership for the last 15 years, and she kind of gaves us the rundown of the caves and the type of habitat it is. It formed about 75000 years ago and was used for many things by the indigenous groups in the region, like storing ice, hunting, etc. The cave itself is 2 miles long and has 182 stairs, and it even runs under the highway but because how far under ground it is you can't hear any cars or anything, 42° F inside all the time, and is pitch black in there; it is actually called a lava tube. It is one of the main habitats for bats and insects, she stated that there are 14 different species of bats in this cave, and they knew this from this instrument that listens to the chirps the bats make and can detect which one it is. They stated their habitat is very sensitive, and they are warry on who goes in there, and it is actually closed right now, because of the bats that were in there. Karen stated that the bats are insectivorous and are susceptible to white-nose syndrome, which is fatal to bats. The two interns, Kassidy and Skylar, did state that there aren't really any bats in there right now, and if there are, it's probably sick and not to be touched. While in the cave, they did talk about the structure of it and that you can see layers of the different lava flows that have gone through it, and that if it wasn't for vents, the whole structure would have collapsed, as well as the ground is made or ash baslat and because of how much people have been down there it is starting to degrade, and look a little like sand. They also talked about these lavaicales, which are made of the ash, and the groundwater seeping in from the ceiling, and drips. The drips have created holes in the ground, and Kassidy stated that it would take 25 years for the drips to get half an inch deep. To end the day, we went on this other little hike, which was pretty flat and wasn't too difficult.