Lake County, Oregon, Day 1: Crack in the Ground

I'm posting the photos of my recent trip (May 28-June 3) one day at a time.  I made about 1000 images (many are different shots of the exact same scene, of course), so it's not a little bit overwhelming.  In a good way, of course.   I believe I took some of my very best photographs ever.

To start off, I visited the Fort Rock Valley, where the volcanic landscape is chock full of interesting geological oddities.  I tried to visit two of them on this first day, but was turned back at the first by "No Trespassing" signs strung up all over a public, federally maintained road.  Even though our tax dollars paid for the road, the ranch that owns a parcel of land alongside the road has put up very intimidating and deceptive signs along its whole length.  Just another one of those instances in which those who benefit the most from Uncle Sam (by running cattle on the BLM land at really cheap rents) are the most un-public-spirited of people.  This kind of sentiment is pretty rife in Eastern Oregon.

Moving on, I decided not to take my chances on this road, and moved on to the next target, Crack in the Ground.

This 70 foot deep, two mile long crack is a tension fracture caused at a fault.  The rocks are all basalt (I'm starting to feel that the only rock I ever see is basalt, thought I did see some kind of sandstone the next day!).  It's kind of like a Pacific Northwest version of those cool slot canyons in the Southwest.  Just not quite are amazing.  We do have interesting mosses, at least!

The bottom of the crack is alternately easy walking and scrambling on big rocks.

At several points, rock falls divide the crack.  Here's a large boulder that has calved off of the side and now one has to duck underneath to continue:

The surrounding scenery is a typical mix of sagebrush, rabbitbrush, and western juniper trees (more on all of these later).

In the distance in this image are two of four extinct cinder cone volcanoes.  This part of Oregon is like a real life version of a science fair at a middle school- volcanoes everywhere!  These four cones are notable, despite their unimpressive size (only a couple hundred feet tall) for having produced a huge area of jagged lava flows.  One large area is called The Devil's Garden, which gives you an idea of the character of the land: like walking on a giant chunk of pumice soap.

Here's one of the cones:

Okay, that's that.  Next up, Green Mountain, where I spent this first night at a BLM campground.
Thanks for reading