Grant's Getaways: Fort Rock

Oregon's high desert is vast, timeless and remote -- where distances are great and people are few and where the only outpost for miles is unlike any state park you've ever seen. At Fort Rock State Park, you won't find many people, phones, radios or TV's and many of the people who visit the distant site like it that way.

Fort Rock isn't an old military outpost, but an ancient volcanic eruption. It was a small basaltic vent that formed a tuff ring when it first exploded to the surface -- and under the water -- 100,000 years ago. The surrounding landscape was once an expansive inland freshwater sea -- up to three hundred feet deep -- that resulted from melting glaciers that reached into the area.