Waking up to the morning chill on the rim of the isolated volcanic cinder cone, I start the jeep and set out on a journey south that crosses three states in a single day.  The landscape becomes wilder, sun-scorched, and more remote by the minute, on the way to the salt basins and hot springs of Nevada. Parting from Oregon via Lava Lakes and the Southern Desert I descended from the forested crater of the cinder cone back to the forest tracks and turned south to advance along the state's southern points. The landscape steadily loses its green in favor of wider, flatter expanses.