Visits to Central Oregon

First, apologies for the funny order of the photos. This blog S/W is not very friendly when it comes to inserting images: it stuffs them all at the top of the blog entry, in reverse order. You get what you pay for, eh?

Introduction

Lisa and I have been visiting the central Oregon region for many years now and still find new and interesting places to explore. We have found seams of fossilized river-willow leaves sandwiched between lava flows in the upper Rogue valley, Matsutake mushrooms (along with Boletes and yellow and white Chanterelles), incredible obsidian spires brooding over valleys that were not created by water but by flowing lava, and thereon a canyon complex that may hold the remains of a small boy lost in Crater Lake. Obsidian-paved parking lots, lightning-scarred peaks and giant water-smoothed boulders are also on our list of places we have been. Here is a small sampling of photos we have taken over the years. The only thing that ties these particular photos together is that they are NOT in the Crater Lake national monument. That will be the subject of another post.

To start: here is a photo of Lisa near the top of Mt. Thielsen. Up at this level, there are no trails: the rocks move too much. I'm a long ways downhill so I can get out of the way of any rocks she knocks loose. She (and I) were wearing our bicycle helmets as a nod (pun) toward safety.


The photo below shows the upper Rogue River flowing through the Takelma Gorge. This is a beautiful section of river trail, not far from the city of Prospect.


Another shot of the Takelma Gorge...


This is a photo of the Rogue near Union Creek, flowing through the Rogue River Gorge.

This is a nice atmospheric shot of an ancient volcano (or what's left of it). It is in the distance. It is called Rabbit Ears. We have driven up to the base of Rabbit Ears and hiked partway around it. There are some interesting succulents growing in the cracks next to the trail. The shot was taken from the highway -- we just pulled off the road and snapped the photo.

A jarring segue: another shot of Lisa, sitting at the end of "chicken shit ridge" on Mt. Thielsen. From here, the last 100 feet is a vertical spire that requires more climbing skills than we have. Oh, something else too: the other side of the ridge (behind Lisa) is a vertical drop of at least 1,000 feet. The entire area is pocked with little puddles of melted rock that mark the terminal point of a lightning bolt. No Duh that this is called the lightning rod of the Cascades.

A shot of a lava dike alongside the "trail" up to the top of Thielsen.


Here's our obsidian parking lot. It was taken at the top of Mahogany Hill, at Glass Buttes. Glass Buttes is a complex made up of a number of obsidian flows, which occurred about 3 million years ago. The obsidian comes in many shades of black, clear and red, with some variations that are highly prized by rock hounds. There are holes dug everywhere in the search for the "good stuff". We always come back with a bucket or two of obsidian chunks and/or obsidian needles. The road up to the top of Mahogany Hill requires a 4-wheel drive vehicle...don't even bother trying it with anything else.

We first became aware of Glass Buttes from a native indian park ranger who was demonstrating flint knapping at Newberry Crater. He couldn't use the obsidian that was there at Newberry so he was using some Mahogany obsidian he had collected at Glass Buttes. We loved the looks of the stuff so we asked him where it came from.

Another shot of the "obsidian parking lot" at the top of Mahogany Hill. A lot of the material probably is the remnants of flint knapping "knap-ins" that are regularly held at Glass Buttes. The place is pretty remote so if you go there, be prepared -- take emergency water and food. When we're there we rarely see ANYBODY else. You don't want to become a featured article in the newspapers on the subject of lost & starving (or dead) travellers, right?