The Face of a Monkey

Today we got to go out and play at Smith Rock State Park-this place has over 1000 climibng routes and truly is a climbing mecca. We decided to take a hike around the place to scope out all the climbing and catch some great views. It was a beautiful day, not too hot, nice breeze...a waterfall along the way...

Monkeys face in the distance...

We saw otters! Our first ones in the wild! Three of them swimming and snacking in the Crooked River along the trail! If we had a better camera we would defintely have pictures! Oh well. We heard there were snakes on the trail but we never saw any... we walked around the south side of Smith Rock along the river instead of taking the shortcut over Asterisk Pass. Little did we know what lied on the other side...Misery Ridge. They call it this for a reason!

At least there are rewards for the journey... a great close up of Monkey's Face, it really is quite amazing, especially watching people climb it. The view was unbelievable, everything from Mt. Hood to Mt. Bachelor ...if we had a better camera we would surely have pictures of the snow capped beauties...oh well...we got Monkey's Face...

A good afternoon in the high desert!