United Colors of Oregon

The State of Oregon, USA, offers spectacular outdoors scenery. Due to its volcanic nature, intriguing rock formations with vivid colors make the Oregon outdoors a delight.

Crater Lake, a caldera lake, is known for its deep blue water

and often colorful visitors

Pinnacles and other volcanic rock formations make an interesting contrast to the greenery

Early morning near Davis Lake

with colorful flora

Exploring the Lava Fields

and Lava Butte just south of Bend

Newberry National Volcanic Monument, another caldera and a surprise – in small scale

with a close look on enchanting obsidian

and large scale

Especially the view to the lava flow south east of Paulina Lake

But as we go further east, into the semi-arid areas which are on the Cascade Range rain shadow, the colors get more interesting, and barren landscape becomes dramatic.

Here’s Smith Rock:

With its famous Asterisk

and Monkey Face

Vegetation contrast

Climbing up to the hilly areas, we reach the forests again, this time exploring an area that has suffered wild fires and is now in different stages of renewal.
Volcanic pillars in the background

The real color celebration starts at John day Fossil Beds National Monument. Actually three different sites, let’s start with “Sheep Rock Unit”

Further north, “Blue Basin” area looks rather greenish

with a wonderful badlands panorama

and a pyramid-like mountain

a bit north to Foree Area

and somewhere on the road in the area

We reach “Clarno Unit”

Which is famous for its fossil sites

Fossils of leaves! Can you imagine that this barren land was once a forest? Before the Cascade Range was formed, humidity could penetrate from the ocean into the continent and create a wet climate with thick vegetation. It all changed when the Cascade Range was formed and this area came under a rain shadow.

Now we reach the rather famous part – “Painted Hills Unit”.
That’s the Apéritif

and as a background to agricultural land

and here’s the main course:

But the dessert is waiting further down the road in Painted Cove Trail

with triple chocolate ice cream

and an amazing mix of colors as far as the eye can see

Filled with psychedelic visions of semi-arid Oregon, we head north west towards Mount Hood area, where the gray bed of White River is an evidence to the relationship between glaciers and rocks…

Columbia river meanders with its blue appeal

and a wet hike in green Oneonta Gorge, is a wonderful escape from summer heat