Medicine Lake
Medicine Lake, CA - Mon, 2 Sep 2019, 12pm
Our journey across backroads this morning in the volcanic highlands of northern California was rooted in a simple idea. "Let's go see Medicine Lake and visit some of these interesting areas along the way." The burnt lava flow and Glass Mountain were a few of those areas. Eventually we arrived at Medicine Lake.
Medicine Lake looks tranquil today but it's actually the caldera of a volcano- one that's been active periodically for half a million years. It doesn't look like what you'd normally think of as a volcano because its eruptions have been slow. The last was a flow out of vents on the eastern rim 1,000 years ago that produced Glass Mountain.
Also because Medicine Lake Volcano has erupted gently (relatively speaking) it doesn't sit inside a tall cone. It's a shield volcano. But over the course of half a million years it has grown tall. The lake is at elev. 7,800'. That's about 4,000' above the land surrounding it.
While we were exploring the lake shore of Medicine Lake a few birds dropped by to say hello. These are osprey. They're fish eaters that nest near lakes and rivers.
Our journey across backroads this morning in the volcanic highlands of northern California was rooted in a simple idea. "Let's go see Medicine Lake and visit some of these interesting areas along the way." The burnt lava flow and Glass Mountain were a few of those areas. Eventually we arrived at Medicine Lake.
Medicine Lake looks tranquil today but it's actually the caldera of a volcano- one that's been active periodically for half a million years. It doesn't look like what you'd normally think of as a volcano because its eruptions have been slow. The last was a flow out of vents on the eastern rim 1,000 years ago that produced Glass Mountain.
Also because Medicine Lake Volcano has erupted gently (relatively speaking) it doesn't sit inside a tall cone. It's a shield volcano. But over the course of half a million years it has grown tall. The lake is at elev. 7,800'. That's about 4,000' above the land surrounding it.
While we were exploring the lake shore of Medicine Lake a few birds dropped by to say hello. These are osprey. They're fish eaters that nest near lakes and rivers.