Smith Rock State Park

Smith Rock State Park is famously known as the birthplace of modern sport climbing in America. It has so many climbing routes that over 1,000 of them are bolted. It's also a stunningly beautiful area that offers a lot of hiking and biking trails. The cliffs have the look of sandstone but are composed mostly of compressed ash carved out by the Crooked River.

Smith Rock State Park is a spectacular rugged valley carved out by the Crooked River.

We went on a loop hike that climbs up over impressive cliffs and down the backside around the base of a freestanding pillar called Monkey Face. From a certain angle it vaguely resembles a monkeys head. We decided to do it so the hardest part came first. That worked out well, keeping us in the shade during the hot ascent and allowing us to enjoy an awesome smoke enhanced sunset on the way down the other side.

On the ascent to the top you will have to walk through a lot of switchbacks.

Coming up over the top of the cliffs you are rewarded with a completely different view.

This is as close as i could get to the top of Monkey Face.

The view north, and downstream.

A more proper view of Monkey Face. The cliffs on the other side of the valley had some very nice properties and homes.

We found a baby rattlesnake here. There were horses hiding in the shade in the meadows on the right. They started to run around and play when the sprinklers turned on shortly before sunset. They are visible in the header picture.

We startled some Mule Deer who were walking down the trail at dusk.

Walking along the last stretch to complete our loop around the big cliff. It was feeling very nice at this point.

After sunset you could see the cloud of smoke from some of the forest fires.