90 » OpenRoad Driver
to climbing the sheer cliffs of Mount Bachelor , and surfing man-made waves on the Deschutes River that flows through town .
Everywhere you go you see signs of the area ’ s volcanic origins . Lava rocks are visible all over town , and below the earth ’ s surface lies an extensive network of subterranean tunnels . We join Wanderlust Tours to explore Boyd Cave . At 1,880 feet long , the lava tube was formed by the honey-like , fast-moving lava flow from the eruption of Newberry Volcano some 80,000 years ago . It ’ s just a 20-minute drive from town but a world away from the bustle of bars , restaurants and gift shops that line Wall Street and Bond Street , Bend ’ s main drags .
Inside the still darkness , our headlamps cast a dim light on pahoehoe and basalt formations as we venture into the depths . We scramble over large boulders and in a few narrow passages , crawl on hands and knees to reach the end of the cave . With hearts beating fast we extinguish our headlamps and try to imagine having to exit this cave without them . Then , relieved we don ’ t have to , we turn them back on and make our way back toward the high desert sunshine , where the late afternoon beckons with the promise of a great craft beer and a sunset sky glowing with fiery colours over the buttes and mountains .