Fort Rock

Fort Rock, Ranch Safari, Crack-in-the-ground, Green Mountain

Fort Rock from the road. Fort Rock was formed thousands of years ago when a bubble of molten lava flowed to the surface. It popped out of the ground in the middle of a giant lake. As the lake receded Fort Rock was made visible. In one part of Fort Rock, in a cave, 6,000 year old sandals made out of bark by ancient native americans were found.

Blue desert flower found at hole-in -the-ground.

White Desert flower found at hole-in-the-ground.

Hole-in-the-ground!! the most interesting place on earth!...NOT!

This hole is 2 miles wide. It didn't look like it. But we hiked down into it and it was huge. The hole was created the same way as Fort Rock, A giant bubble of lava.

This path that we hiked down into the hole doesn't look steep but it was! I ended up falling smack on my butt. I guess I need to get some trekking poles...


To get to Derrick cave, we had to go on a ranch safari through some rancher's property. Some of these Steers looked like they wanted to ram our new Highlander. We drove about 6.5 miles into the trail head and there was a giant pine tree that someone had cut and let it fall across the road. We ended up not being able to get to the cave because we couldn't get around the tree.

A quick shortcut up a Green mountain allowed us to drive to crack in the ground. Green Mountain was so beautiful. Compared to the rest of the desert terrain around southeastern Oregon, Green Mountain was surprisingly lush...hence the title I guess. There was an old fire look out on top also.

Keo in our new Toyota Highlander on top of Green Mtn! WooHoo we can now go off road to the trail heads that our car could never make it to. I guarantee that there will be some good posts from now on because of our new SUV.

Crack in the ground rock formation.

Keo sitting on his crack in the crack! hehehe Crack in the ground is 2 miles long. It was created when four buttes in the area erupted with molten lava. The pressure from the four explosions created the crack a few miles away. We hiked up to the top of the crack and walked around. there was no way that anyone would be able to see that it was there unless you were flying overhead. The crack blended in with the desert sagebrush and boulders.

Winner of the strong woman competition! Me holding up some giant boulders.... Actually they were wedged in the crack.

Stay tuned for the Cowboy Dinner Tree restaurant! It was quite an experience!