Fort Rock State Natural Area

The walls rise out of the high desert floor like something dropped from a different planet — a near-circle of jagged volcanic rock, a tuff ring formed when lava erupted through what was once a shallow inland sea. Walk the trail inside and you understand quickly that it's bigger than it looks from the road. The oldest sandals ever discovered came from a cave about a half mile west, woven from sagebrush bark and dated between 9,300 and 10,500 years old. People were here, on what was then an island, long before anyone was keeping records.