Hiking Smith Rock, Oregon

Redmond, Oregon
Deschutes County Fairground


Smith Rock State Park has some great hiking trails and rock formations.  Some of our RV friends, Dave & Dianne and Jim & Diana had just been here so I had to put it on the list to see while we were here. It was going to be a hot day but we thought we'd get up early and go for it.

You start out hiking down towards the rocks and then you drop down to the river.  It seems even hotter out here so we'll see how far we make it.  We planned on combining a few hikes to make a large loop.

We decided to start out going the more difficult part first before it gets too hot and finish up with the longer section that follows the Crooked River last.  So we went right after crossing the bridge.

 

 

 

The river was beautiful and it was nice to start along it as it meandered through some trees.  Hurley loved splashing around in it too.

 

 

I call this Chicken Rock.  It reminded me of one of those old pottery collectables from Avon.

Remember those?

We crossed a small scree field.

The next part of the trail goes up really steep on loose dirt and rock. How nice that they leave a back brace board here.  I guess there are many rock climbing accidents.

Well, the shade didn't last long enough and the temperature really started to climb as the trail did.

Getting steeper and hotter!

After making it to the aqueduct/canal, there would be no shade on this steep side of the rock so we decided to call it a day and head back.  Hurley does not do well in the heat any more and the dirt/rocks on the trail were also getting hot for his feet.  So it was unanimous.  Done hiking!

You could see the large eagle nests up high in the rock.  They close some of the trails during nesting.

 

The colors of the rock really stand out.

The last difficult part was the steep walk back up!  So do I still hike?  Still do.  Always will! Now to go find some ice cream!

We drove through the cute town of Prineville to look around, cache a little and get an early dinner.

The old courthouse.

The did a really great job on making a walking path with memorial stories of different Hot Shot and fire fighter team members from the area that lost their lives.  It was really pretty and touching.

 

The memorial statue.

 

We kept seeing signs for caves and ran across them by accident looking for a geocache.  They are located right in the backside of town in a large empty, undeveloped area.  Kind of forgotten.  If it weren't for the sign, you'd never know they were there. 

There are 5 there that you can actually walk into.  Some go back a bit deeper and two of them connect.  The area isn't really taken care of.  There is some graffiti on the cave openings and some garbage.  I wouldn't go into any of them.  Kind of creepy.  No one around either.

You can see Steve above the opening in the middle (above the sign) to get an idea of the size.

 

More neighborhood transportation.

Good Night.  Next we move up by Salem to see more waterfalls!