24 Hours Around Bend

After enjoying the volcanoes around Ometepe Island in Nicaragua at the Fuego y Agua races, I thought it was time to see a bit more of the volcanic activity around Central Oregon. Since many of the mountains near Bend are volcanoes within the Pacific Ring of Fire, there's a lot of volcanic rock and volcanic buttes.

Over the past 24 hours I've been out to Smith Rock, a famous climbing area formed from igneous basalt and tuff (volcanic ash) for a long run with Jeff Browning and some hiking at Lava Butte (a cinder cone) and along the Deschutes River Trail (good views of volcanoes). So here's my free tourist guide to these places via photos.

Smith Rock:

View from Gray Butte near Smith Rock

Jeff ahead of me heading towards Monkey Face

Crooked River around Smith Rock

Monkey Face

Mt Jefferson in the background

Mt Jefferson

Smith Rock from Burma Road

Lava Butte:

Mt Jefferson way behind Black Butte

Mts Bachelor, Broken Top and the Three Sisters

Three Sisters and Broken Top

Mt Bachelor and the lava field that exploded out of Lava Butte 

The crater in Lava Butte

Deschutes River Trail in Bend: