Lake Albert, OR

A lot of the drive through Oregon has been boring. Today we drove along a very scenic 15 mile (terminal basin) lake that was very scenic, and I wondered why it wasn't full of boats, and lined with resorts.
Lake Albert is very alkali due to sodium carbonate. It is so salty, that even flies don't use the water. You can see the rocks look like someone painted them white. On some rocks the crystalized mineral crust is several inches thick. The few tufa mounds reminded me of the tufas we kayaked through at Mono Lake a few years ago. Birds along the Pacific Flyway go through here during migration, but the Lake is really drying up and getting saltier.
History of the lake behind with volcanic lava. Ice Age water, and shifting fault lines. The lake is on the Oregon fault line, and has the most prominent fault scarp in North America.
The orange lichens on the rocks were interesting.
We had lunch enjoying the scenic viewLeer más