It’s hard to believe that 18,000 years ago a gigantic ice cap covered the Cascade Range, up to 2,000’ thick and 170 miles long. Glaciers filled nearly every canyon with moving ice, sculpting the landscape. Much evidence of this glaciation is lost to erosion and volcanic activity, but is still well-preserved today in the headwaters of the Little Deschutes River. Here one finds a classic U-shaped canyon, 1,500’ deep with moraines and a meandering stream, easily explored on a 2-mile trail (one way) and cross-country forays.

Fifteen thousand years ago, the Cascade Range was covered with a massive ice cap, up to a half-mile thick and extending 170 miles from Mt. Hood south to Mt. McLoughlin. As the climate warmed, a disjunct population of Alaska yellow cedars was left behind in a unique glacial bowl, known as Echo Basin, where cold air collects and pools. Just an hour’s drive from Bend, this basin and its old-growth cedars can be explored on a 2.5-mile loop hike, along with alpine meadows and glorious wildflower displays in late spring and summer.

In our scientific age, it’s hard to believe that the origins of any landform could still be unexplained, but this is the case with the extensive soil mounds and their encircling rock rings found northeast of Madras on the Shaniko Plateau. Known as mima (my-muh) mounds, several theories have been advanced about their formation, from differential erosion, to Ice Age freeze-thaw cycles, to soil movement by foraging gophers. But no one theory is widely accepted and these unusual land features remain a puzzle to geologists today. Hundreds of acres of this mima mound topography can be explored on BLM land near Shaniko.