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CHRISTMAS VALLEY NOVEMBER 2002 |
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| After fort Rock we explored lava tubes and had some lunch. |  |
| On the horizon is Lost Forrest. Our second camp site. The dust plume form the truck in front of me, shows the get
dirty part. This forest is a patch of ponderosa pines thriving in the desert with barely half the rainfall pines usually require. No other ponderosas grow within 50 miles. In the Ice Age, pines grew throughout Southeast Oregon. This grove survived only because it grew on top of an ancient, sand-covered lakebed. The lake's hardpan collects rainfall from miles around. The tap roots of the ponderosa pines reach down through the sand and drink what they need from the invisible lake. Next to the Lost Forest, wind has sculpted some of the sand into an area of dunes http://www.angelfire.com/or2/ kdhalls/christmasvalleyhistory.html Someone on the C B said it looked like a cityscape. It did. |
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