We live in an epic place. Big, knotted trees, wild rivers, snow-covered peaks and astonishing vistas seem to be around every corner in this glorious state, but few places can make you feel so small as you do standing riverside at Smith Rock.

The otherworldly and gravity-defying formations that make this outcrop the best sport climbing destination outside Europe are actually hardened ash, spewed out of a volcano when the land dome above it collapsed into the 230-mile Crooked River Caldera. The scale and drama of this cataclysmic event are captured in the rock, and that’s what Joe was pondering when setting up this late-afternoon shot.

In it, a hiker’s scale is compared with that of the foreboding rock wall that seems to stretch up forever, pockmarked by giant air bubbles previously trapped in the compressed ash. The angle of the path offsets the faults and textures of the rust-colored rock, and speaks to the uphill journey she must still make as night approaches.

 

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