What Is Smith Rock And Where Is It?
Smith Rock is a rock climbers paradise in the high desert of central Oregon. Along with the Painted Hills At John Day Fossil Beds, Columbia River Gorge, Crater Lake and a few other natural winders, it is one of the seven wonders of Oregon. There are towering mountain peaks that attract rock climbers from around the world.
The Crooked River winds its way through the park and adds to the scenic landscape. While this park probably wouldn’t be considered a hikers paradise, there are some hiking trails through the park that make nice fairly mellow hikes. The landscape offers some great photo opportunities but not more than a couple days worth if the weather cooperates while you are there.
The park is located about 27 miles north of the town of Bend and about 10 miles north of the town of Redmond. There are a number of campgrounds outside the park. There are hotels scattered all the way from Bend, Oregon up to Redmond, Oregon and almost all the way up to Smith Rock.
If you’re on a road trip and have camping gear with your, there is a campground in the park. The Smith Rock “bivy” campground is a unique campground that costs $8.00 per person per night. If you stay there you must setup a text or at least not sleep in the car or vehicle. No RVs are permitted in the campground area. The $8.00 includes admission to the park and use of the shower facilities in the park.
What Is It Like To Travel To And Photograph The Smith Rock?
As noted above Smith Rock is located near Bend, Oregon and the town of Redmond, Oregon is even closer. The closest airport to Bend, Oregon is the Redmond, Oregon Airport about 10 miles from the park. You could also fly into the Portland, Oregon airport or the Eugene, Oregon airport. From any of those with the possible exception of Redmond you will need rental car to get to the park. Though you could get there without a car from the Redmond Airport you’d have to be self sufficient the whole time there without a car.
If you’re on a road trip, and chances are you will be if you are going to Smith Rock, the park is easy to get to. Just be sure to get there early on weekends and during peak periods if you want to secure a spot in the “bivy campground”.
Once you are in the park, there is a fair amount of parking. If you are camping, you can leave your car at the campground and hike over to the main section of the park without much effort. The Smith Rock park map is here.
Once you get out there and get settled, I’ve found the best lighting in Smith Rock to be in the morning when this photo was taken. At sunrise the rock formations start to glow and the scene is simply awesome. Sunset can be good in the park as well. Keep your eye out for wildlife, especially birds of prey. It’s not uncommon to see bald eagles or other birds out in the area.
Many of the trails in the park are elevated. You’ll be looking down on or out over the Crooked River from above the base of the mountains. Smith Rock can be a pretty crowded spot and it may be hard to get some photos without a bunch of people in them. That’s another good reason to get there early before crowds start to flock into the park.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Photo Of The Smith Rock And The Crooked River?
If you are going to Smith Rock for photography, the most convenient place to stay is definitely in the campground at the park. The day use (and hence photography) part of the park closes an hour after sunrise and opens a half hour before sunrise. If you are staying the campground you’ll be able to get to your sunrise photo spot a bit before those who stay outside the park and have a shorter drive to get there.
At Smith Rock there are lots of different compositions possible and a number of different perspectives from which to snap some great photos. If you shoot from higher up on the surrounding trails you’ll probably be more easily to minimize the significance of people in your photos as they’ll be small specs down by the river. Since the park closes overnight, chances are their won’t be climbers up on the rocks earlier in the morning. Of course since it is a rock climbers paradise you may want photo with climbers on the rocks.
Even if you don’t get there early, the sights are Smith Rock can still make for some pretty awesome photos. On days when storm clouds blow over and the sun peaks through, you can get some really dramatic photos.
When you go, be sure to bring a wide variety of lenses so you can cover a pretty large zoom range. Anything from ultra wide angle to 600mm or more should you come across some of the cool large and small birds that can be seen in the park at various times of year.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing Smith Rock And The Crooked River?
The answer to this is simply a wide variety of camera gear or at least a wide variety of lenses. Get a good DSLR or mirrorless camera. If you’ll be limited to one lens then you’ll probably want a general all purpose walk around lens like a 24mm – 105mm. That will enable you to shoot lots of different things from different areas in the park. You’ll be able to shoot scenes from the trails up above the river as well as some down at river level.
If you will spend more time down at the river level you may want something wider than 24mm. A 17mm – 40mm will give you more flexibility to shoot some of the gigantic rock formations while being pretty close to them. You’ll also be able to get really wide angle shots from the elevated trails above the river. You can of course crop those to create some panoramic views that some areas of this park lend themselves to.
Smith Rock is an area that does lend itself well to panoramic photos from the elevated trails in the park. That includes those around the main parking area. The photo featured in this article is a stitched panorama.
If you have a camera that can shoot and stitch panoramic shots internally then you may want to use that. If not, then a panoramic head like those from Nodal Ninja (Fanotec) is what I use but there are other options out there. When shooting somewhat distant mountain panoramas like this, I often use a full frame camera and pair it with a 50mm lens or a 70mm – 200mm lens.
Aside from the added flexibility of the 70mm-200mm lens, the main difference there is the size of the image that can be created. With the 70mm-200mm more images can be squeezed into the same space for a truly HUGE panoramic file that can generate massive prints in stunning detail. Lots of people say i is overkill. For some may very well be. It never hurts to have a super high quality image file than can make super sharp, high quality prints as large as anyone might want.
Anyway, I’d bring a panoramic setup to Smith Rock. You may have to haul it to some spots but you can also make use of it from right near the parking area.
The last thing you may want to take with you is circular polarizer. A circular polarizer can help make the skies a more deep blue, make the rock colors more vibrant and give you a better overall image straight out of the camera.
If you’re into bird photography and have a big lens, you might want to bring it. There are some cool birds around in this area and I’ve seen (and photographed) bald eagles at Smith Rock. It probably won’t be the primary reason you go to Smith Rock but you can probably pick up a few bird photos there. The are around the campground was good for some bird photos.
What Is The Story Behind This Photo Print Of Smith Rock And The Crooked River?
Back in the fall of 2013 I’d been exploring a lot of Oregon and planned on going to lots of national park sites. Unfortunately the government had other ideas. A squabble in Washington over funding shut down the national park system while I was in Oregon along the coast.
The shutdown looked like it would last awhile and it did. From October 1st through the17th, federal lands were closed to the public. That knocked out a bunch of places like Crater Lake. While on the Oregon Coast I discovered that it shut down National forest campgrounds where I planned to camp and even some lighthouses along the Oregon Coast. I ended up sleeping in the car in more random places and sometimes right outside the entrance to some of the closed campgrounds.
Since it seemed like it would drag on for quite some time, I scrapped all the plans for federal lands and turned my attention to state parks and other places that would not be shut down or places like Multnomah Falls that couldn’t really be shut down. Along with the Oregon Coast I spent a fair amount of time in the Columbia River Gorge area. When federal lands did open back up, I went to The Painted Hills at John Day Fossil Beds. After that I dropped down to Smith Rock in the high desert of Oregon.
I’m not sure how I discovered or learned about Smith Rock but it looked like a cool place to stop and get some pretty cool photos. I”d been sleeping in my car in random places up around the Painted Hills at John Day and was excited to discover that Smith Rock had a campground. There were no real designated sites but it was a $5.00 per person nightly charge AND they had showers. For someone on a solo road trip that is about as close to paradise at you can get!
When I went over to the campground I discovered the BearSnobs with their cat Striker whom I’d met on my first journey to Many Glacier back in the fall of 2012 were
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