Smith Rock State Park: My Favorite Place to Hike in Oregon

Smith Rock State Park – a fantastically scenic area in the high desert in central Oregon with major rock faces formed from stuff called welded tuff – that’s compressed volcanic ash – formed 30 million years ago! One of the most photogenic features of this state park is the Smith Rock Group, one of the tallest portions of rock in the park with cliffs towering about 600 feet over the oh-so-aptly named Crooked River.

Smith Rock State Park

I love to hike here but this park is also a world capital of sport climbing! Hundreds of named climbs bring climbers of all levels, a sport that is definitely not for me. I’m not much for jumping out of an airplane either…

Crooked river from the Rim Rock Trail — The Chute Smith Rock State Park

There are no bad views on any hike in Smith Rock State Park! Oregon is a hotbed of volcanic rock formations, and all of this rocky beauty was created by massive volcanic events millions of years ago.

There are hiking trails of all kinds at Smith Rock State Park! If you do the easy Wolf Tree Trail in the afternoon, the low position of the sun illuminates the rock formations just perfectly. Misery Ridge is amazing for those long views, but being right by the Crooked River on the River Trail or Canyon Trail has a whole different appeal – lots of water birds to see – geese, ducks, a blue heron, and the cute little black and white diving ducks called Scaups, even river otters!

So why is it called Smith Rock? There’s a story there of course! And it was about U.S. soldiers and Indians in the mid-1800’s and a bloody battle… but in this time and place the soldiers were there to protect the reservation Indians, mostly from horse thieves as horses were a valuable commodity. In this battle, it was with a non-reservation tribe who went to steal horses from the reservation Indians. The soldiers pursued the horse thieves into the canyon, the battle ensued and Private Smith scrambled up to the top of the summit for a vantage point…he lost his footing and fell to his death.