The roads out to Lava Cast Forest are a challenge to drive. This road is a turn off I mistakenly turned down, but the main road wasn’t in much better shape.

The irony of Lava Cast Forest is that if you can get there, the area is very accessible and has lots of benches. Getting there was one of the hardest drives of my life and it left my back a bit tense.

I am glad I went. The wildflowers growing in the lava rocks were amazing. The ‘casts’ are from where the lava went around the trees, but then the trees died and rotted, leaving various formations in the lava.

Some of the wildflowers growing in the lava.

After Lava Cast Forest, I went to Big Obsidian Flow.

Big Obsidian Flow is an area of volcanic glass within Newberry Caldera. The rocks are pumice and obsidian.

On the trail you are hiking right on volcanic glass.

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