Little Crater Campground, Day 4

We hiked the trail through the Big Obsidian Flow, the result of the most recent lava flow of Newberry Volcano, 1,300 years ago and is the youngest lava flow in Oregon. Over 170 million cubic yards of obsidian and pumice erupted from a vent about a miles south of the trail head.

Obsidian is a natural volcanic glass...remarkably similar to the glass in your windows. It is not made of crystals, like other rocks are, but has the disordered internal structure of a liquid.

Native American Indians have fashioned knives, arrowheads and other sharp tools from obsidian for the past 10,000 years or more. Because obsidian blades are sharper than steel, they cause little scarring; some doctors use them today for delicate operations, such as eye surgery.