Pumice Castle Overlook

The viewpoint is 1.1 miles west of the Cloudcap Overlook junction and 2.4 miles east of Phantom Ship Overlook. Those landmarks help place an unmarked stop along the road. Rim Drive typically opens from mid-July through late October, while winter snow can close the route.

The north-facing view includes Pumice Castle beside Redcloud Cliff, with the lake below. For a photo, keep some of the orange formation and surrounding cliff in the frame so its shape reads against the larger caldera wall. Park naturalists noted that afternoon light brings out the east wall’s colors; it’s a useful condition to watch for, not a guarantee.

A 1938 field description placed this pumice bed about 1,300 feet above the lake and 400 feet below the rim, with a maximum thickness of 190 feet. The naturalists recorded bands of brown-red, pink-buff, and gray pumice, along with a six-foot black obsidian layer and andesite containing obsidian lenses.

The early park naturalists attributed the shape to erosion: harder andesite and obsidian wear down more slowly than the softer pumice around them. They also considered the bed older than the thick pumice mantle above it, while noting they could not establish whether similar outcrops shared the same origin.