FORT ROCK STATE PARK — KELSEY KAGAN

This’ll be a quick, friends, both in the review and the time you spend there, should you choose to check this place out.

It’s kinda on it’s own little island, and while it has some interesting history it wasn’t a place that I would go out of my way for, so tie it on to a trip to see Hole-in-the-Ground and/or Crack-in-the-Ground.

I visited on a Wednesday in October, so I had the entire place to myself. I can’t imagine it gets to crowded (again, it’s really out there) no matter the season, and I’ve heard that if you go in late May there are beautiful wildflowers in bloom. It took us about thirty minutes to hike the loop trail, which is only 1.1 miles long, but we took our time to explore the old, jagged rocks. The formation itself is an old tuff ring set in what was a shallow sea in prehistoric times. Also, kinda fun, a pair of sandals was found in a nearby cave that is somewhere between 9,000 and 13,000 years old- the oldest pair ever discovered. Like I said…history!

There are no fees to get into this park, but it boasts shaded picnic sites and flush toilets. Dogs are welcome to join the fun, as long as they mind their manners and remain on leash.

It would be impossible for me to get the entire mass of this formation in one frame. People have described the way it appears seemingly out of nowhere as mirage-like.