Columnar basalt stone in the Umpqua National Forest, Oregon

© Jaynes Gallery/Danita Delimont

Columnar basalt stone in the Umpqua National Forest, Oregon

Of course there are countless trees in the nearly one million acres composing Oregon’s Umpqua National Forest. But the topography here reveals the volcanic nature of the region near the southern end of the Cascade Mountain Range. These naturally occurring columns of basalt rock appear throughout the forest, usually along steep hillsides where the landscape shifts dramatically. When volcanic rock cools in the right conditions, vertical fissures in the rock create these tightly packed pillars of stone.