A few million years ago in Terrebonne, OR, a seismic event pushed soft sedimentary rock a thousand feet up from an ancient riverbed. Then the wind and weather scoured and eroded the rocks. Meanwhile, lava oozed from craters nearby.  This lava cooled and changed the flow of the Crooked River.  But the river kept flowing and wearing away the rock.    Volcanic actions both sudden and slow, followed by forces of water, wind, and weather, carved the rock formations of Smith Rock State Park.  Today climbers dangle like spiders from Monkey Face’s chin.  Hikers ascend the plated ridge via well-placed stairs.  And human and canine bathers splash in the Crooked.  I saw a Meerganser mom with twelve ducklings and thought of our girls followed by Girl Scout campers.  “Tough ratio.” And I saw diminutive Bichons frisées, paws aloft, being carried by their personal flotation devices.

Although Bend has expanded exponentially since my last visit in 1995, its growth seems well-planned and even pleasant. Street signs name a quadrant or district, traffic circles and one-way streets show evidence of urban planning, and there were NO empty storefronts in the historic Old Bend part of town. Much of the priciest real estate, alongside the river, is public park.  Bend reminded me somewhat of Reno, NV in the 1990’s:  booming expansion and redefinition of city limits. One symbol of such redefinition is the conversion of a lumber mill to a shopping mall.  REI is housed under the smokestacks.  There are jobs here, in construction, in service, and in government and education.  Almost all of the people I talked to moved here from somewhere else: Maui, Portland, Las Vegas, L.A. Marco attracted a lot of attention, even though he was one dog among many.  Many folks asked to pet him.  The photo I didn’t take was of Marco exchanging kisses with an admirer sporting a red beard in Marco’s exact signature shade. One lady gushed, “He’s so sweet and affectionate. He must be a therapy dog!”

The people have been extremely friendly to us and to each other. On the law and order frontier, I observed NO leash scofflaws on the walkways. The underpasses are decorated with brightly colored murals and they don’t smell like urine. Public art, benches, and restrooms!

And because I’m still a plant person, currently a transplant person, I include some flowering crabapple:

One advantage of motor home travel is you can live in a different habitat each day. After the mixed conifer alpine forest, Elevation 6240′, of Lofton Reservoir, we descended to the wetlands of Goose Lake, Elevation 4700′, then climbed to the dry juniper and sagebrush canyon of the Chewaucan River, Elevation about 5300′, then descended to a young subalpine pine forest, Elevation 4000′, at Lapine State Park, then rose to be among the first campers of the season at Newberry National Volcanic Monument, East Lake, Elevation 6400′, again in an alpine forest, with snow still on the ground.  Today our biome includes high desert pines, Elevation 3623′, and the luxury of hookups, as we find ourselves in Bend, OR for the Royal Wedding weekend.