June, 2024
In the last blog post or two, I’ve talked about the dry environment here in the middle of Washington and Oregon, on the east side of the Cascade Mountains (the Cascades run north/south through Washington and Oregon — the RED line below). The RED dot in the image below is where I’m camped at the Deschutes River Campground.
Where I’m camped at the Deschutes River Campground, it’s dry! There are a LOT of rocks, and rock walls, and rock cliffs, and rock formations, and rocks along the roads, and rocks in and along the rivers. Rocks. Lots of rocks here. Mostly from lava, but whatever the source, there are lots of rocks here, as well as dry arid land.
All of the photos here were taken by me as I was traveling east or west along the Columbia River, or just off onto a short side road. It’s easy to pull over and snap a photo or two, and walk around a bit to see what there is to see. There is very little traffic on the side roads.
The water in the photo below is the Deschutes River. I’m standing on the west side of the river, looking east across the river at the Deschutes River Campground. The Deschutes empties into the Columbia just outside the photo, to the left. This sure is pretty with all those trees. But you can see the hill immediately east of the campground and see how dry and barren it is. Rocks.
The water in the photo below is the Columbia River. The top of the cliff/bluff across the river is about 520 feet higher than the level of the river. That would equal a 52-story building. Lots of rock.
Here below is a closeup of part of the photo above.
A little bit further down the road, another railroad track appeared on the left (in addition to the one I already knew about on the right side of road 206). That railway on the left came up from southern Oregon and followed the winding Deschutes River all the way up here to the Columbia River.
The top of that bluff/cliff is about 380 feet above the road on which I was driving … a 38-story building. That railway tunnel runs through about 800 feet of solid rock. That’s the railway you saw in the most recent blog post about the meaning of the word “Deschutes”.
I always feel more comfortable with lots of trees around me, because that’s what I’m used to. But after just a day or two here, I was starting to appreciate the intricacies of the rocks and their beauty.
I had driven past the rock wall in the photo below a few times (and saw lots of faces in the rocks). But this time, driving past, I saw what looks like a unique formation near the top, center top.
I’ll zoom in … it looks sort of like a flared skirt.
Here it is …
What made just that one section of rock do that? Water? Earthquake? Glacier? Lava flow?
Further down the road, there was this rock wall (below) which was different from the others.
Here’s a closeup … looks like basalt/lava columns to me.
Then there was yet a different sort of conglomeration of rocks here … and if you look sort of at the middle of the photo below, you’ll see a dark passageway in between the 20-foot high rock walls.
Maybe someone lives in there! Back around the corner deep inside.
But, not all of the land around here is rock. There is also lots and lots and lots of land that doesn’t seem to have anything on it except maybe very dry “grass”.
And yet, even that land has rocks underneath. The photo below shows exposed rock cliffs at the base of that sand/dirt hill.
And then … my favorite rock wall of all … is this one below. And you folks will know why it’s my favorite the moment you see it. Faces! Dozens of them! 🙂 In fact, they all started talking at the same time when I got close to the wall. They all needed to tell me something. There were humans and birds and reptiles and bears and dogs and cats and pigs and fish, all manner of life in those rocks. Their combined voices were so loud that I simply had to leave, but I wished them well before I left.
Here’s a closeup below of just one section. How many faces do you see? The photo will enlarge if you left-click on it. I can find 14 faces in just the first few minutes, but I’d bet there are more. How many do you see? Oh wait, no, there’s another one! Ok, so 15 so far. There’s a horse’s head right in the middle. 🙂
