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.<\/p>\n
Crater Lake, a caldera lake, is known for its deep blue water<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n
and often colorful visitors
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Pinnacles and other volcanic rock formations make an interesting contrast to the greenery<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_2_placeholder\nngg_shortcode_3_placeholder\n
Early morning near Davis Lake<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_4_placeholder\n
with colorful flora<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_5_placeholder\nngg_shortcode_6_placeholder\n
Exploring the Lava Fields<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_7_placeholder\n
and Lava Butte just south of Bend<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_8_placeholder\n
Newberry National Volcanic Monument, another caldera and a surprise – in small scale<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_9_placeholder\n
with a close look on enchanting obsidian<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_10_placeholder\n
and large scale
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Especially the view to the lava flow south east of Paulina Lake<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_12_placeholder\n
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.<\/p>\n
Here’s Smith Rock:
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With its famous Asterisk<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_14_placeholder\n
and Monkey Face
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Vegetation contrast<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_16_placeholder\n
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.
\nVolcanic pillars in the background
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The real color celebration starts at John day Fossil Beds National Monument. Actually three different sites, let’s start with “Sheep Rock Unit”<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_18_placeholder\n
Further north, “Blue Basin” area looks rather greenish<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_19_placeholder\n
with a wonderful badlands panorama<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_20_placeholder\nngg_shortcode_21_placeholder\n
and a pyramid-like mountain
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a bit north to Foree Area<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_23_placeholder\nngg_shortcode_24_placeholder\nngg_shortcode_25_placeholder\n
and somewhere on the road in the area<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_26_placeholder\nngg_shortcode_27_placeholder\n
We reach “Clarno Unit”<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_28_placeholder\n
Which is famous for its fossil sites<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_29_placeholder\n
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.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_30_placeholder\n
Now we reach the rather famous part – “Painted Hills Unit”.
\nThat’s the Ap\u00e9ritif
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and as a background to agricultural land<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_32_placeholder\n
and here’s the main course:<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_33_placeholder\nngg_shortcode_34_placeholder\nngg_shortcode_35_placeholder\n
But the dessert is waiting further down the road in Painted Cove Trail<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_36_placeholder\n
with triple chocolate ice cream<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_37_placeholder\n
and an amazing mix of colors as far as the eye can see<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_38_placeholder\n
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…<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_39_placeholder\n
Columbia river meanders with its blue appeal<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_40_placeholder\n
and a wet hike in green Oneonta Gorge, is a wonderful escape from summer heat<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_41_placeholder\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A trip to Oregon’s finest colorful delights – Crater Lake, Davis Lake area, Newberry Volcanic Monument, Lava Butte, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument – Painted Hills, Clarno and Sheep Rock Units, White River Mount Hood, Columbia River, Oneonta Gorge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,28,29,31,38,59],"class_list":["post-1527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-north-america","tag-desert","tag-flora","tag-geology","tag-hiking","tag-mountains","tag-water"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2031,"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527\/revisions\/2031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guyshachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}