Oregon @en
now browsing by tag
Some more of Oregon
Continuing my way quietly from one discovery to thw other, I reached south eastern Oregon where the landscape is rather desert…
1. “Summer Lake” – named in the mid-19th century by French trappers who have found a more temperate climate after a harsh winter during their crossing of the highlands – is almost dry.
2. From above, we can see that there is still some water.
3. A little further on my way, Abert Lake looks having some more water.
4. On my way to the Warner Valley where there should be some “wet lands” areas where I should have opportunities to observe migratory birds, this rainbow greets us…
5. So I get on the Hart Mountain in the late afternoon, I discovered that the wet lands are completely drained to the point that grass replaces the lakes!
6. Showers offer e a nice sunset sky…
7. … and impressive clouds.
8. The next day, I went walking in the wet lands that are desperately dry. I only meet this hare…
9. … and saw only two flights of cranes taht don’t stop as they did when these places were wet.
10. Unlucky for bird observations, I’ll try my luck elsewhere trying to spot a hot spring on the Hart Mountain. Having found it, I spent the afternoon and relaxed me.
11. The nice camp of VivaLaVida, right next to the hot spring.
12. A very bright and colorful sunset concluded the day before I go soaking a little more under the stars…
13. Silhouettes on golden sky…
14. The following day, not without taking advantage of the starry night bathing me in the spring, I did a short hop toward the Steens Mountains.
15. They are culminating at at over 9,000 feet and there was snow on the last portion of track.
16. From the top, the scenery is gorgious.
17.5,000 feet lower, dry Alvord Lake on land sailing come when there is wind.
18. The trail follows the ridge for a few miles. Unfortunately I hade a gray sky gumming contrasts… 🙁
19. After two hours of waiting, a shy sunbeam just gives a little relief to the Kiger Gorge.
More to come soon… 😉
Still in Oregon…
Here are some other spots I discovered in Oregon.
I told you, we’re right on the “Ring of Fire” and there are many sites of volcanic geology. One of them is the Newberry National Monument, a Hawaiian type volcano whose last erupted 6,000 years ago.
1. I first discovered the end of the lava field, about 6 miles away from the crater…
2. Here is the crater. Not more than 600 feet high, formed of falling slag from its explosions and expulsions of lava.
3. Nearby, virtually nothing was able to grow from 6,000 years, the particular combination of austere basalt and dry climate minimizing the creation of humus.
4. And I had the amazing and unexpected opportunity to finally solve the mystery of the Loch Ness monster. In fact, Sherlock Holmes and all the others could look far; they couldn’t know that Nessie had moved and was now living in the lava fields of Newberry! 😀
5. The basalt of Newberry diverted the Deschutes River, forcing it to dig its canyon in the more friable rock than basalt.
6. VivaLaVida then continued its way south-west across the highlands, vast horizons penetrated by only some few popular backroads.
7. I drove later than usual to sleep close to the next site…
… which is a lava tunnel called Derrick Cave.
8. Arrival in the morning.
9. This tunnel is impressive, about 30 feet wide and 15 in height to its input.
10. The roof collapsed in places, letting the light entering in the first 300 feet.
11. A photo with the penguin to give you the scale. 😉
12. After 200 meters, the tunnel plunges underground, without any light. This photo was taken with the only light of small torch light. The tunnel is here more than fourty feet high, impressive. But without a second light, I didn’t go much further, didn’t want to find myself in there without light…
Still another site to discover another geological phenomenon or rather sysmic: “Crack in the Ground,” a crack in the rock created by an earthquake a few thousand years ago.
13. His visble part is almost one mile long…
14. … portions of which are accessible by walk.
15. Some blocks are really in precarious balance!
16. I cannot show you but you can really see that this layer wass opened, the shapes of the rocks are similar in positive/negative on opposite sides.
17. After these discoveries related to volcanoes of this region, I went to sleep in sand dunes close to “Lost Forest”.
18. The sunset was beautiful.
Stay tuned for more to come soon… 😀
Some spot in Oregon…
As announced here are a few spots that VivaLaVida and I visited in Oregon, a state with varied and attractive scenery. The wet Pacific coast (where I didn’t go because of rainy weather) covered with beautiful forests, especially those of “red wood”. Moving 100 mile to the East, past the mountain range of South Cascades, they are highlands where the altitude ranges between 2,500 and 4,500 feet, dry because protected from rain by the Cascades range.
First spot visited, the Palissades, a cliff created by the erosion of volcanic mud dating from 40 million years ago.
1. The Palissades.
2. This site is part of the John Day National Monument, known for the fossils it contains. Here, prints of fossilized leaves which show that there was a very different landscape millions of years ago.
Then another site still within the John Day National Monument. It’s the “Painted Hills” which are aptly named.
3. Overview.
4. There’s something alive in these unusually rounded forms of a mineral landscape, don’t you find?
5. The red is rich in iron (iron oxide, such as rust), yellow-green substrate is dating from dry ages and black is manganese, set by various plants in wetter periods.
6. These hills are made of clay that pumps all the water and makes them inhospitable to any plant that would colonize.
7. Slip of the clay created by the few heavy showers or thunderstorms are even dying plants at their feet.
8. No, it’s not a volcano! 😀
9. VLV is well camouflaged in these colors…
We now move to the west of Bend, in the Cascades, up the bed of the McKenzie River. This mountain is part of the Pacific Rim where the tectonic plates of the Pacific and North America meet; it comprises of numerous volcanoes, many still considered active, and several volcanic sites, including many recent lava field.
10. Let’s begin with a small wonder difficult to access, Tamolithe Pool. There is a resurgence of the McKenzie River which disappears in a lava field about one mile upstream.
11. The color and clarity of the water are just stunning!
12. After much effort, I finally managed to go down one of the cliffs for a the bottom view. Difficult to realize the depth of this hole; but this image is a stitched panorama of vertical images taken at 16 mm of focal length, an ultra wide-angle, and it barely fit in height!
Going up the river, there are two beautiful waterfalls created by a lava flow of about 3,000 years ago.
13. The Koosah Falls jumping about 90 feet. Unfortunately, the rain is back when I arrived there.
14. McKenzie River upstream from Falls Koosah.
15. Above, Sahalie Falls, best known as the accessis easy, jumping nearly 120 feet in a rather deafening uproar. Note the amount of foam that covers thelava arround.
16. Finally, I ended my walk at Clear Lake where the McKenzie river exits from. With almost 100% humidity, it was partially embedded in the mist…
That’s it for the Cascades that allowed me to redo a long walk after more than two weeks of bad weather. It was good! 😀
Radical change of scenery just about seventy miles to the east, on the site of Smith Rock in the sun while it was still raining on the Cascades. Other volcanic site created by two separate events: first a big explosion, creating tuffa peaks, a relatively porous but solid rock, then a flood of basalt that has spread around the peaks. The river that runs through the site dug its bed between the two, carving a rather exceptional landscape.
17. It’s rare to see such a river in a semi-desert landscape…
18. The tuff is solidified in veins sometimes really vertical.
19. From the high peaks, the highlands are immense.
20. Here we see the basalt plateau to the left and the tuff peaks to the right.
21. I discovered that these peaks are a mecca for climbing, with dozens of pathes. There were also dozens of strung this afternoon.
22. The sun goes down behind the mountain for a pretty special atmosphere…
that’s it for today. I’ll let you discover other sites in Oregon soon.
Thank you for all your comments, it’s nice to react to my images. 😉
D5 Creation