Lava Butte, Newberry National Volcanic Monument
The Lava Butte lookout, el. 5,016 ft., is located just west of Highway 97, 13 miles south of Bend, Oregon, at the Lava Lands Visitor center – part of the Newbury National Volcanic Monument. You can drive to the top of this 500 ft. high volcanic peak in a small 2WD vehicle. The lower floor of the lookout has panoramas above its windows identifying the peaks you can see from its 360-degree vista.
To the south, 76 mi. away you can see Crater Lake rim; To the west, the 10,000 ft. elevations of the Cascade peaks of the Sisters, are visible 20 to 27 miles away. To the North, on a clear day 11,237 ft. el. Mt. Hood, 102 mi. away; and 12,307 ft. Mt. Adams, 158 mi. away in Washington state can be seen. Southeast of the lookout 17 mi. out is 7,985 ft. el. Paulina Peak. You can drive to the top of this peak in a small 2WD vehicle, for a 3,000 ft. higher and more expansive view of the landscape around Lava Buttes – and 100-150 mi. out into Oregon’s High Desert Outback country.
Paulina Peak
This is a rotating panorama of the vista around Paulina Peak lookout. It can be slow to load, but is worth waiting for. Clicking on the panorama will stop its motion, and you can then click and drag it manually at different speeds depending upon where you place your cursor adjacent to the edge of the panorama. If it does not appear, you may see a message at the top of the page asking you to turn off your pop-up blocker to allow it to appear. If you see a message in the panorama space reading “out of memory”, just click over to one of the other links on this page, and then back in to this one to make the panorama appear.
Driving
directions to Paulina Peak:
From
the entrance to Lava lands Visitor Center on Hwy 97, drive south 18 miles to
Road 21. Turn left, east on this paved road and drive 18 miles into the National
Monument, past the entrance station, and just past the visitor center. Turn
right, south, up what shortly becomes a graded gravel road that is not
recommended for large vehicles, for 5 miles to the summit parking lot.