FORT ROCK, Ore. — In this week's "Let's Get Out There," we head to Lake County, Oregon, to check out Fort Rock State Natural Area.
If we’re going to get out there, let’s get way out there! About a four-and-a-half-hour drive from Portland is the impressive Fort Rock State Natural Area.
A towering horseshoe-shaped rock formation rises from the plains of Oregon’s Lake County. Now an extinct volcano, Fort Rock was formed during the last Ice Age. A magma chamber beneath a prehistoric lake caused steam explosions, emptying the lakebed and exposing millennia of weathered rock.
Today, you can hike through the empty crater, measuring almost 4,600 feet in diameter. Hikers can choose to take the easy one-mile loop, or if you’re feeling ambitious, scramble higher to get a view from the jagged rocks rising up to 300 feet around the rim.
PHOTOS: Go back in time to Fort Rock State Natural Area
The neighboring Fort Rock Cave is also a fascinating point of interest. Only accessible by guided tours, several sagebrush sandals were discovered in the cave in 1938. They’re believed to be over 9,000 years old, making them the oldest known shoes in the world. At the time of discovery, they were covered with ash from the Mount Mazama eruption that created Crater Lake some 60 miles away.
This year's cave tours begin on April 6.
Luckily, there have been advancements in footwear since then, but there are still very few footprints. According to Oregon State Parks’ communications specialist Stefanie Knowlton, Fort Rock State Natural Area is among the 13 least visited parks out of about 180 parks with visitation numbers.
In 2023, there were 31,824 day-use visits or about 88 visitors per day. Individual state parks range from about 14,000 to 1.7 visitors per year.
Let's Get Out there airs once a week on KGW's 4 p.m. newscast and The Good Stuff, which airs Monday-Thursday at 7 p.m. We're including viewer photos for this series. You can text your photos to 503-226-5088 or post them on the KGW Facebook page.