Bend

We took a trip to Bend last week and one of our many stops included the Smith Rock State Park. The path in that bluff is apparently the original Oregon trail.



Renee holds up the fence.



There ate lots of rock climbers who fly in word wide to climb smith rock. If you look closely you can see some of them in this picture.



This guy was doing alright, but Renee and I decided we'd give him a run for his money.



Here is Renee climbing up and over the rock face. The going was a little rough. See the people at the right and the hand at the left to compare the scale. Only wimps use ropes.



We climbed to the top of one of the ranges.



We were here.



As hard as we thought climbing up the front of the cliff was, coming down was at least twice as hard. We only stopped for pictures after we were over the roughest section. There were definitely no rails though.



This is one of the most famous rocks, called "Monkey-face". I think you can see why.



Just so you can tell how big it is, zoom in on this one and see the fearless hikers pointing to monkey-face. I think they just didn't want us to miss it.



Here is a longer shot from the tippy top. Truly stunning, it is impossible to capture on film.