Roadside Oregon

Once in a while I like to take photographs under a full moon.  If you look carefully, you can see Ursa Major, otherwise know as “The Big Dipper” or “The Great Bear” above Ft. Rock.

The Oregon State Parks Dept has a basic page about Ft. Rock here.

From Bend take Hwy 97 South to Hwy 31.  Take Hwy 31 for about 30 miles and look for the signs.  You cannot miss it to the left/North of the highway.

Google Map here.

Several years ago there was a bad forest fire around the Santiam Pass area.  This is just a photo showing how the area is recovering.

There is a Google Map of the area here.  You can tell from the satellite photo that the area has been affected by something. Seeing it in person lets you see the destruction and the rebirth of the area.

This is a view from Hwy-214 between Salem and Silver Falls State Park.  Depending on the time of year, the view can vary widely.

You can see the location here here at Google Maps.

Colors viewed from an entry to a parking area along the McKenzie River National Recreation Trail. The riverbed here is dry for the summer months as the water level has “lowered” so much that it is actually in the porus lava beds. It makes a reappearance at the Tamolitch Dry Falls.

I like the very black dried mosses on the river (lava) rocks and the colors of the vine maple.

This is about five minutes south of Hwy 20 on Hwy 126 (which goes from the Santiam Pass area to Eugene. There is also a great view of the Three Sisters Mountains from the lava fields here.

You can see the area here at Google Maps.

Smith Rock State Park is 651 acres (263 hectare) of year around climbing surfaces of up to 550 feet (168 meter) high. Comprised of welded tuff (compressed volcanic ash and columnar basalt, there are more that 1,500 climbing routes from easy to 5.14c.

Smith Rock State Park is considered to be the the birthplace of modern sport climbing. On some routes the hardware is left in place for the next person to use. In other areas clean equipment like chocks and camming devices are recommended.

The park has been seen in many movies including: The Postman, Mission Impossible II, Swordfish, Rooster Cogburn.

You can see a Google Map of the area here.

I stopped at a SnoPark along Hwy 22 in the Cascades for a little break during my drive over the mountains. The SnoParks are places where people can park for cross country skiing, snowmobiling, tubing, show shoeing or other winter activities. There are several of these around the state, this one was along Hwy 22, here on Google Maps.

I think the photo just makes you think of a cold clear winter day, and it was…

The Hells Canyon National Recreation Area is located on the Oregon and Idaho border and is 652,488 acres in size. Hells Canyon is the deepest gorge in North America (yes, it is deeper than the Grand Canyon)

The Snake River, at the bottom of the canyon, is more than a mile below Oregon’s West rim and more than 8,000 feet below the Seven Devils Mountains of Idaho.

There are no roads the cross the canyon and only three roads that lead to the bottom of the canyon and the Snake River from Hells Canyon Dam and the Oregon-Washington state lines.

You can see a wide view of the location at Google Maps here. The photograph was taken at the North Pine Rest Area above the canyon.