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Guest Blog
A guest post by “Summit Trail Amy”:
I’ve always tried to remind myself to look at things from a different perspective, however, it seems I’ve been somewhat forced into doing so even more. After having hiked the Burma/Summit Trails loop over 300 times over the past couple of years, an injury has now relegated me to sit on the sidelines awhile, but can I still enjoy the beauty and splendor of the Park? Absolutely! Just from an entirely different perspective for the time being.
When Eli Olson, a 9th grade Honors Literature student at Estacada High School about 30 miles southeast of Portland contacted us to help him with his final project assignment—To find a way to get my work out into the world, we were moved. He was allowed to write about anything he wanted to, and he chose to write about the history of sport climbing at Smith Rock, where it all began for North America. He originally started his essay last year but didn’t get to finish with the impact of COVID on the school system. By the time he got to pick up his project again, it evolved from the history of climbing in the U.S. that was mainly focused on Yosemite, until he learned about Smith Rock. Now he encourages others to push their boundaries and try sport climbing.
Charlie Baughman is back with more incredible images, this time of some of the year’s outstanding celestial events, one that has come to be known as the “Christmas Star.” You may remember the article we did last August on his arresting images of the Peregrine “puffballs,” or chicks and Bald Eagles action during nesting season.
Charlie Baughman has been photographing the Bald Eagle nest at Smith Rock State Park for the last 5 years and the Peregrine Falcon nest for 3 years. We reached out to him last month after we were captivated by his image of the Peregrine Falcon chicks featured in the banner image of this article. The images he sent back were equally mesmerizing. We wanted to know the story behind the pictures. Charlie filled us in.
Chris Hatzai has been featured several times on SmithRock.com, both in a eulogy to friend and fellow route developer, Alex Reed, as well as updates on route development at in the Monument and Marsupials areas of Smith Rock State Park. On a recent trip to the Monument Area he was humbled by those who put Smith Rock on the map as a world-class climbing destination.
