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had the opportunity to get away for the weekend, and decided to take some
time to visit Fort Rock, a park near central Oregon. The weather
wasn't very good, but Fort Rock is quite impressive. It is a tuff
ring which is all that remains of an ancient volcano. The photo above
is a panorama--click on it to see it larger size and without the title.
You can also click on any photo below to see it in a larger size.
All photos were taken with an Olympus C-3000 digital camera. |
| Fort
Rock is so unusual because it was a volcano that formed in a lake, the
ancient Fort Rock lake. The tuff ring used to be complete, but wave
erosion from the prevailing southeast winds eroded a portion. This
view is from a USGS aerial photo. If you look carefully, you can
see successive shorelines as the lake dried up. |
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Approaching Fort Rock
on Highway 5 from the west, Fort Rock appears as an impressive monolith. |
| Fort Rock
is in a very lonely place in Oregon. This photo shows some of the
beautiful sagebrush country surrounding the monument. |
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The weather continued
to close in as we approached, but fortunately, we weren't rained on.
This photo, also taken from the highway, shows the open side of Fort Rock. |
| We hiked a bit around
the inside of the ring. The cliffs are apparently home to quite a
few birds, and we saw several rabbits nonchalantly nibbling on the plantlife. |
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The old shoreline of Fort
Rock Lake can be clearly seen on the cliff edges at the mouth opening.
It was hard to imagine what this place was like when the lake existed (~
10,000 years ago). |
| Colorful
groupings of lichen were to be found all over the place. |
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A beautiful sunset on
Highway 97 bid us a fond farewell to our brief trip. |
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