East of the Cascades, Oregon grows warmer, drier and wilder; green valleys give way to the high desert with sageland, juniper trees, bare hills and stark rock formations broken up by the occasional tract of pine forest. The volcanic landscape has cracked lava flows, abrupt cone-like hills, and high craters such as beautiful
Crater Lake
in the south. The east, though seldom visited, can be surprisingly beautiful: the
John Day Fossil Beds
along US-26, and the remote, snowcapped
Wallowa Mountains
- overlooking the deep slash of
Hells Canyon
- are both overwhelmingly dramatic landscapes, and not to be missed if you have a lot of time to drive around the outback from one isolated sight to another.
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