Oregon is one of the most geographically diverse states in the US. While it is often thought of as being cloudy, rainy, and plush with green pine forests typical of the northwestern United States, in reality nearly half of the state is covered by high desert and semi-arid shrubland. The American Cordillera is a long chain of high peaks created by the Ring of Fire that run along the eastern portion of California as the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, and up into both Oregon and Washington where they are found more in the western portion of each of these states as the Cascade Mountain Range, nearer to the coastline. Storms from the Pacific Ocean hammer these peaks with an enormous amount of precipitation throughout the year. However, the high peaks capture and hold the storms mainly on their western flanks, creating a very dry rain shadow to their east. Due to this effect, the eastern half of Oregon is mainly arid desert land, especially in the southeast portion of the state which continues on through the entire state of Nevada, part of California, part of Idaho, and part of Utah as the Great Basin Desert. Back in Oregon, right on the boundary between green forests and dry desert scrub lies the town of Bend, often considered as the gateway to the outdoor sports. The Wild Images Team has spent several days in Bend, and as always it did not take us long to start exploring the surrounding landscape. One region that caught our attention was the Lava Cast Forest, which is found in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, in a remote region about 20 miles south of Bend. In order to access the Lava Cast Forest, it is necessary to leave the pavement and negotiate through a network of dirt roads for about 10 miles. Much of this isolated area is along the edges of the Ring of Fire, and has seen extensive volcanic activity in the past. Lava flows are found everywhere here, breaking the landscape up into a jumble of large boulders of jagged black rock. Already a very distinct geography, but the Lava Cast Forest is a unique place even among the lava flows. At different times around 6000 years ago and older, the same volcanic activity that created the towering peaks in the area also pushed massive amounts of lava across the landscape, following the contours of the landscape and guided only by the surrounding ridges that were impervious even to molten lava. But in the region that is now the Lava Cast Forest, large trees also stood against the onslaught from the hot lava, and many became buried under several feet of molten rock that eventually cooled and hardened. As the wood of the trees was either burned or decayed away, it left giant openings in the lava, called lava casts, scattered all over the area. Some of these openings are vertical and can exceed 8 feet deep where the trees still stood upright. In other areas, trees were toppled over and completely buried in a horizontal cast, some of which are up to 30 feet in length. That is the type of cast found in the above photo captured by The Wild Images Team. One opening of the cast can be seen at center bottom of the image. Another opening can also be seen at left of center, though the cast itself continues on to the far left of the picture. To complete the composition, we intentionally included distant snow capped volcanic peaks at top center, visible below the clouds and blue sky behind the top center pine tree. The Wild Images Team has captured many other photos in Oregon and neighboring Washington such as the deep blue hues of swirled clouds and rim peaks reflected in Crater Lake, the Hoh Rainforest green moss covers every possible branch, and the right place at the right time rainbow over the Mt. St. Helens remnants, each of which are available for sale in our store. Blog posts from Oregon and Washington include the sharp looking view through the Lava Cast Forest, the optical illusion of blue waters and white streaks in Crater Lake, the starkly colorful rainbow rises over the devastation of Mt. St. Helens, the moment The Wild Images Team Coordinator Christina is imprisoned by rainforest tree roots, the interesting story of the Port Angeles waterfront Rocktopus Sculpture, and its accompanying bronze plaque of charitable organizations. The Wild Images Team has also captured many other photos in nearby California such as the scene of a blooming thunderstorm over Joshua Tree National Park, the lava flow created streaked ridge in Lassen Volcanic National Park, and the high altitudes where a giant sequoia is larger and redder than others, the steep Hyde Street view of Alcatraz Island and San Francisco Bay, the drastic slope of the abrupt drop off of Taylor Street, the Pine Street colorful terraced houses with background buildings, the historic looking beautiful terraced houses and a Classic VW Beetle, and the Asian inspired intricately ornate Chinatown scene, each of which are available for sale in our store. Blog posts from California have documented the long and winding road climb to the giants of Sequoia National Park, the size comparison of The Wild Images Team Coordinator Christina and the giant tree, the massive view where giant sequoias maintain their diameters over hundreds of feet, an overlook into the Merced River Valley with Liberty Cap, the road heading towards the sheer monolith of El Capitan, the road heading towards desolate ridges of Joshua Tree National Park, the location where the road rises out of Bumpass Hell, a beach dune covered view of the secret underground World War II bunker, the reflective tower of the Marriott Marquis over the Yerba Buena Gardens, the distinctively ornate Asian architecture and decor of Chinatown, the musically inspired melting records with album covers mural, the long strange trip of the Grateful Dead Jerry Garcia mural, the places where steep sidewalks have stairs cut into them, the street where a tree gives a sense of the steepness, the expansive view of Nob Hill from Telegraph Hill and the oppositely directed view from Telegraph Hill to the northeast, the descent in the upper portion of the Filbert Steps, followed by the middle portion of the Filbert Steps with a pose by The Wild Images Team Coordinator on the steps, followed by the lower portion of the Filbert Steps, and at the bottom a view up the Filbert Street steps again with a pose by The Wild Images Team Coordinator below the steps.
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