Smith Rock State Park

Smith Rock is a state park in Deschutes County of the U.S. state of Oregon. The park was founded in 1959, 263 ha located 14 km north-east of Redmond.

The park protects a range of hills of multi-colored rock spiers that rise above the Crooked River in the Oregon high desert. The rocks are made ​​of tuff volcanic origin and rise up to 167 m up from the valley floor, the highest point is 1024 m high. Famous is the Monkey Face, a 100 m high rock pillar with overhangs on all sides in the shape of a monkey head.

The rocks were named after the pioneer John Smith, who is said to have discovered them in 1867. According to another legend, they are named after a popular soldier named Smith, who is to be killed in a skirmish with Paiute 1863 here. The area of the park was acquired by the State through donations from the city Redmond and through the purchase of privately owned 1960-1975. At Wild animals can mule deer, golden eagles, prairie falcons, and many other birds, such as watching Lazulifinken, harder to see are yellow-bellied marmots and bats.

The use of the park is chargeable. The park is considered to be the birthplace of the sport climbing in the United States. Today he is an internationally known destination for sport climbing with over 1800 climbing routes. The park is crossed also riding trails, mountain bike trails and seven miles of hiking trails. At the park entrance, there is a picnic area and a primitive camp site.

The park served several times as a film set, for example, for the Western with Rooster Cogburn with John Wayne or the movie Postman directed by and starring Kevin Costner