Sawtooth Crater Field Trip

Last Thursday, the homeschool die-hards from our local Christian homeschool group, climbed the steep terrain to the top of a little-known volcano in our area. Everybody made it to the top, including several toddlers and a grandma. These are some tough homeschoolers, LOL! I had visited Sawtooth Crater 15 years ago on a university geology field trip. Since then, I've actively studied Creationism, and it was so neat to look out from the top of the volcano at the surrounding landscape with a whole new perspective this time. Seeing the effects of the different stages of Noah's flood and the quick uplifting that the bible so clearly talks about in Psalms 104, was indeed a fascinating theory to share.It was about an hour and a half drive to the volcano, but at first I couldn't find it because the "trail" sign was covered up with trees and you couldn't see it from the road. I kept driving and since we were so close to Balm Creek Reservoir, we decided to have picnic on it's shores. Good thing we did, because our geology trip also became a biology field trip. As soon as we stepped out of the car, the kids discovered hundreds of little frogs all over this green, grassy shore area. They were in heaven! Here is Hailey with one of her frogs. I had to make Josiah empty out his pockets before we got back into the car, LOL. He had handfuls!It was all we could do to get the kids to settle down and eat some lunch. Can you see that this was an absolutely perfect day? We didn't need shade, yet it was warm. Awesome weather, thank you, Lord!So we got back into our rigs and drove back to where my mental picture was taking me. Thank you, Lord, I was able to find the right pull-off for the trail head! In this picture, we're going through an eroded spot in one of the andesite dikes that fed the now-dead volcano. It is only about a mile and a half up the volcano, but it is steep. Not treacherous though. No cliffs to fall off of. This is the andesite plug in the middle of what is left of the volcano.Almost there! To the left of the picture, you can see the andesite rock outcrop that is the dike feeding the volcano.Here we are on top of the plug, with all of us blocking the beautiful Eagle Caps behinds us (uplifted mountains that have been glaciated). The tree line in the background is part of the crater's rim that goes around the entire volcano. It is so cool!  The beautiful panoramic view takes in the Eagle Caps, rest of the Wallowa mountains, Blue Mountains, Elkhorns, Keating Valley and Baker Valley. It is truly breathtaking, especially on a clear day like we had. I gave a quick "Big Picture" Creationist lecture about how the Northwest's landscapes were formed by Noah's Flood and the uplifting, erosion and glaciation that had taken place since then. We also talked did a lot of native plant identification as we walked up the trail. It was so much fun that I think I'll do at least one local geology field trip each year. 

God Bless,

Jackie