Day 4 7/18/13

Day 4 7/18/13

Woke up at 6. Kinda chilly.
Got food, got ready for the day.
Lava Lake Cave
Lava Butt Elevation 5,020
Lunch
Vistors Center
Deshutes River tour (saw falls)
Blogging at McDonalds

Sleeping in the tents wasn't so bad :) At first it was really hot in there but then in the early morning it got really cold. Waking up was kinda hard too.

Lava Lake Cave was a really cool stop, literally! At Lava Lake Cave we did two things, learned about lava caves and about the bats that live in them.

Lava caves are formed by a lava vent exploding, spewing a river of lava out. The river of lava runs off and the top of it starts to slowly cool. But because the top cooled the inside is insulated and is thus able to keep moving. Then when the lava finally stops and cools then it's left what looks like a giant straw. With the cave we entered the roof had collapsed some at the beginning enabling us to get in. When we entered it started out as chilly and then got cold, as the tunnel wasn't heated by sunlight. The temperature in there was 42 degrees. On the cave walls and floors there was lava stalactites.

With the bats we learned about them, their habitat, and White-Nose Syndrome. WNS was brought over from Europe by travelers. What WNS does is essentially wake up the bat before hibernation, when there's no food, causing the bat to starve to death.

At Lava Butt we learned about different careers, fire prevention, and what steps are being taken to insure help that we help the forest rather than hurt it. We also checked out the lookout, the lookout watches the forest for fires.

Then we went to eat, look at the visitors center, and walk down to look at the river and the falls.

We are now at McDonalds and they are out of sweet tea. I am sad about this. I WILL HAVE MY SWEET TEA.

BANDWAGON OUT!