Fort Rock Valley

• John Muir.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz |

Fort Rock was also a missed location from our first Oregon trip. We had planned this time almost perfectly and reached just before golden hour started and had the whole area just to ourselves, well except for 3 young kit foxes. I saw them watching me while I was taking this shot, but disappeared into the bushes before I could get a shot. I first thought they were coyotes but their ears were unusually large, which upon further research fit more closely with the appearance of a young kit fox.

Fort Rock is a volcanic landmark called a tuff ring, located on an ice age lake bed in north Lake County, Oregon, United States. The ring is about 4,460 feet (1,360 m) in diameter and stands about 200 feet (60 m) high above the surrounding plain. Its name is derived from the tall, straight sides that resemble the palisades of a fort. The region of Fort Rock Basin contains about 40 such tuff rings and maars and is located in the Brothers Fault Zone of central Oregon's Great Basin. Essentially it’s a large lava bubble that burst under an ancient lake.

• Leo Buscaglia.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz |

On our first trip to Oregon, I had the Fort Rock in North Lake County as a possible spot to visit in my list. But unfortunately, we couldn’t find a time slot to fit in a sunset shoot at the rock. So, when we planned a second trip to Oregon, we made the Fort Rock location a must visit spot. On the first day as we reached Bend after checking in to the hotel, we drove straight to North County and to Fort Rock.

From the little information I read at the park this whole area was an ancient lake bed and fort rock formation happened when a lava bubble formed and burst under water. When standing in a sage bush sea it's almost unbelievable to think that this used to be a lake bed 100,000 years ago.

As for this shot, I wanted to make an image to emphasize fore on the sheer size of the rock cliffs. This is the spot from where which Fort Rock appears the narrowest and after a fair bit of walking around the bushes and encountering three coyote puppies, I managed to take this shot.