After our previous visit to Fort Rock, Zach took a few quick shots from the car as we headed back toward Bend.
Lunch in the Juniper Forest
After a fun time at Crack in the Ground, we went down the road a bit to have lunch.
A couple cans of beer and some hot dogs made for a delicious lunch.
While poking around our lunch spot, Heather and I found a garbage bag full of old VHS movies and a remote control for a VCR. It appeared to us that this might have been where someone went after robbing a house in the area. Why someone would steal VHS tapes and then dump them out in the desert is beyond me.
A juniper standing sentinel.
Thunderstorms in the distance.
Back on the road toward Christmas Valley.
Crack in the Ground
After a rather eventful adventure down what turned out to be a farm access road with some extremely deep and large mud puddles, we arrived at Crack in the Ground.
Crack in the Ground is a strange geologic formation where a layer of basalt cracked to form a fissure that runs between 20 and 100 feet deep. If a person stands more than about 50 feet away from the fissure, the person would never know that the crack even exists.
We descended into the crack. At several points along its length, the sand and dirt has intruded and enough basalt has collapsed to allow entrance.
Big columns of basalt have wedged into interesting positions in the fissure. This place reminds me a great deal of Þingvellir and Miðlína in Iceland.
Climbing through jumbled basalt.
Heather and me at Crack in the Ground with Zach behind us.
A panorama with Crack in the Ground in the foreground.
Interesting patterns in the basalt.
The bottom of the crack.
Daylight far above.
