1 Day 3 started with a stop to Smith Rock. This state park resides on a the remnants of a 8-18 million year old explosive volcanic complex.
2 South Sister looms in
the background.
3 John gives a good presentation on obsidian and its uses.
4 The sheer walls formed from the welded tuff (fused hot ash from a violent eruption) are a siren call to Oregon rock climbers.
5 Buzzards catch a nice thermal.
6 Mt Washington behind a balanced rock
7 Mules ear and Smith Rock.
8 Horace takes in the view.
9 A good shot of Smith Rock with some folks on the trail for scale.
10 Crooked River.
11 A better view of the rhyolite tuff that makes the Smith Rock cliffs.
12 A sense of scale with folks hiking the trail.
13 Unknown wildflower.
14 Balanced rock in the center of the photo along with some dots of people who had time to hike out to the rock. BTW, the Crooked River has undercut the jointed rocks creating the cliffs over millions of years of rockfalls.
15 Mt Hood. Another dangerous volcano in the Cascades.
16 Wildflowers at Fort Vancouver just across the river from Portland. Mt Hood in the background.
17 Steve stops to smell the roses at Ft Vancouver's Garden.
18 Semi-group shot.
19 Fort Vancouver was an outpost of the Hudson Bay Trading Co and opened in 1825. The Fort had the largest population in the west between San Francisco and Sitka until the California Gold Rush.
20 The canon tower was never fired in anger and was only built to welcome and salute passing ships.
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