Saturday, May 29, 2010

Oregon Road Trip - Day 2


Odell Lake
Apparently Shelley owns a lake?! We found a great campsite at Trapper Creek Campground because there were still snow drifts nearly blocking access to the last two available sites. Thankfully this put us away from the noise of every other site filled with trailer and boat parties. But the nearby freight trains waking us in the middle of the night were quite a puzzling sound at first.


Crack In The Ground
Had to ask at the local gas and mini mart in order to locate the sign indicating directions to this interesting find. Though Christmas Valley itself was quite an interesting find. I watched a guy pull up on his chopper with a black lab perched on the tank like it was nothing. There is also a nearby airport but the only two planes parked there had flat tires. Apparently it does get used as there was an additional plane parked there when we left.


The Crack, as it is known locally, is 2 miles long, 10 to 70 feet deep and varies in width from 2 to 50 feet across. In places you can see parallel cracks through gaps in the rock. According to geologists The Crack formed recently as 1000 years ago when volcanic activity caused rock on the southeast side to sink leaving the northwest side in place. Normally these kind of things fill in with dirt over time but this one has remained deep enough to find snow in places during the summer. Allegedly pioneers escaped the summer desert heat and would have picnics in The Crack, even making ice cream from the snow.

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