Table Rock hike

On our way up through Oregon, we stayed first in Medford. In the evening, we did a short hike to Upper Table Rock. It's a huge U-shaped plateau that overlooks the whole valley, and the views from the trail are so beautiful! Here's a cool view of what it looks like from afar. We'd been hiking around the redwoods all morning, so when we got here in the evening everyone was pretty tired. But the wildflowers were out, and it was nice and cool in the shade of the trees, so we kept going for quite awhile.

Sweet Daisy

Paintbrush

I don't know the names of any of these flowers, but I love them

In spite of people professing to be tired, this ladder-like rock proved irresistable

Seb strikes a jaunty pose

When the trail started getting quite steep, Sam took some people back down the trail while Sebastian and I hurried up to the summit. It was worth going up that last steep section, because once on top, we felt like we'd entered another world. After hiking through scrub oak and wildflowers, not unlike Utah trails we've been on, the place suddenly changed. It was so flat and quiet, half rock-knobs and half wild, waving prairie-grass meadow.

These rock columns along the edges were really interesting. We were calling them basalt, but I read afterwards they're actually andesite (which is sort of a cross between rhyolite and basalt). This plateau was formed by a lava flow, and everything around it eroded over time, leaving it jutting up above the valley. The views were spectacular.

I think this is Mt. McLoughlin in the distance?

Gorgeous sunset over the waving grasses