About 2 hours south of Bend is the incredible Upper Rogue River Gorge, many thousands of water per second pounding its way through this narrow gorge cut through volcanic rock.

The upper Rogue River of southern Oregon thunders at the rate of 400,000 gallons of water per minute through a deep gorge as narrow as 25 feet (upper photo). The gorge is cut through relatively young lava laid down about 7000 years ago by the mammoth eruption of Mt. Mazama, which also resulted in the creation of breathtaking Crater Lake. In the lower picture, the river emerges from a cave at the end of a several hundred foot long lava tube, forming a natural land bridge.