On Wednesday (7/8/2009) of our Crater Lake adventure, we left Bend in the early morning and headed up to Smith Rock, a massive rock formation, probably an old butte that was carved away by the water, in the middle of the Crooked River Canyon, outside the small town of Terrebonne.

This was our second trip to Smith Rock.  Several years ago, we were driving through Terrebonne and decided to check Smith Rock out.  We crossed the Crooked River at the bridge and hiked the trail for several miles upstream along the Crooked River, turned around and hiked back.  The trail on the opposite side of the river in the picture above is where we went last time.

This time, we are hiking canyon in the opposite direction, planning to circle around to the back of Smith Rock, then assault it from the rear!

Smith Rock, with all of its cliffs and canyons, makes it a world famous place to go rock climbing.  These first aid stations are positioned near popular rock climbing trails.  In the beginning of the park, there is a helicopter pad for extreme emergencies.

There are lots of colorful cliffs along the trail, too.

These are some cliffs that are popular with the rock climbers, I believe they are called the Dihedrals.  If you look closely at the picture, you can see the paths the rock climbers take outlined in white, from the powder the rock climbers put on their hands.  It’s a desert, so there’s not a lot of rain to wash the powder away.

We continued the trek along the canyon, taking the occasional photo of the river and the many rock formations along the way.  It was a really nice trail.

Even though it was still early, it was getting hot already, so we stopped in some shade for a water and camera break!

At a quick rest and water break, I climbed up a side trail to check out some big cracks in the rock to see if they were caves.

Paula and I finally made it around to the trail along the back of Smith Rock.  In the distance, you can see the Monkey Head.

Paula waiting for me to quit fooling around with the camera…

We hiked along until we were below the Monkey’s face.  Looking up, we can see some adventurous climbers crossing the chasm to get to the top of the Monkey Head.  It looks just like a Monkey, too!

Finally, we reached the junction to begin our climb up Smith Rock.  We’re a few switchbacks up already, the desert is starting to heat up, and we found ourselves stopping for shade and water.  We are directly behind the Monkey Head now.

Midway up Switchback Hell, about even with the Monkey Head.  We’ve got a YouTube video of the climbers tight-rope walking over the chasm between the Monkey Head and the cliff.

Here I am resting at the top of Smith Rock, paused to watch the acrobatic/insane climbers.

Here we are on the Misery Ridge trail looking South down the top of Smith Rock.  I believe the rock formation over there is the Mesa Verde wall.

Here are some more colorful rocks of the Red Wall at the Smith Rock summit.

Paula is standing on the top of the Smith Rock summit looking East.

Here is the Crooked River bending down the canyon from the top of the Smith Rock summit.  This is the trail Paula and I hiked several years back.

Can you see the Dodge Stratus in this picture?  The Green Hornet appreciated the several hours of rest from the washboard gravel roads.

From the summit, we are looking down at the steep trail along the Red Wall that we’re going to have to descend.

Another hiker took our picture on the summit as evidence that we made it to the top.

Paula and I were both ready for a nap as we got to the bottom.  In fact, Paula already found a good spot!

Here are the sheer cliffs below our photo-op at the top.  There are lots of birds, especially falcons, that nest