FOUR-PAGE SPORTS PULLOUT INSIDE
• B SECTION • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2021
THE REGION’S HUB FOR
OUTDOOR ADVENTURES
Each week in this section, you will find the area’s
most complete guide of what’s open and closed;
outdoor activities and events; top picks of places to
explore; conditions of hiking and biking trails,
fishing holes, water flows, camping spots, parks
and more — as well as features from outdoor
writers and field experts.
“It just opened
up a new world
for me. I take
a camera with
me everywhere
I go now.”
Alex Laakmann
“The photography
aspect is a product
of the cool stuff
that we do like
going climbing or
going whitewater
kayaking.”
Eli Zatz
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Two teens explore Central Oregon
with a
camera
BY BRIAN RATHBONE • The Bulletin
end teens Eli Zatz and Alex Laakmann spoke fondly of
B
a late September night up on Broken Top in the Three
Sisters Wilderness where they spent hours trying to
capture the night sky on their iPhones, using rocks to circumvent
the lack of a tripod to get a steady photo.
That night, trying to capture the stars, is when the two friends
discovered a love of photography.
For nearly six months, Zatz and Laakmann
have been exploring the world of photography
and capturing the scenery of Central Oregon.
“It just opened up a new world for me,” said
the 15-year-old Laakmann. “I take a camera
with me everywhere I go now.”
Rather than learning to bake a perfect sour-
dough loaf , the two began taking a camera on
their adventures throughout the pandemic,
when some activities became limited.
“We ended up going on a lot of backcoun-
try, wilderness adventures and it was really
fun to take a camera along so that we could
take some fun pictures,” said the 16-year-old
Zatz. “The photography aspect is a product of
the cool stuff that we do like going climbing or
going whitewater kayaking.”
The two have traveled to Joshua Tree Na-
tional Park in California, backpacked through
the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Eastern
Oregon’s Strawberry Mountains and rock
climbed City of Rocks in Idaho. In Central
Oregon, areas close to home have provided
more than enough material to hone their
new found craft.
See Camera / B9
Get lost in the Lost Forest
BY MAKENZIE WHITTLE
The Bulletin
Sometimes, you just need to
drive east.
Turning my Jeep eastward
toward the so-called Oregon
Outback is one of my favor-
ite drives in the state. It’s easy
to find yourself lost down a
bumpy dirt road without cell
service, but it’s just as easy to
find your way back to paved
country highways to get your
bearings again.
And that’s part of why it’s so
great.
Christmas Valley
Dunes and Fossil
Lake, where hundreds
of paleontological
specimens have been
CAMPING
unearthed for over a
century.
By all accounts of the sur-
rounding landscape, the forest
Lost in time
shouldn’t be here. But it has
The nearly 9,000-acre pon-
survived from a cooler, wet-
derosa pine and western juni-
ter age and can now withstand
per forest is nestled between
meager annual rainfall, sandy
typical arid High Desert ter-
soil and wind storms that rip
rain, the constantly shifting
across the landscape.
inland dune system of the
See Lost Forest / B9
Beyond the miles of
sagebrush dotted with
farmland is a small
corner of Earth east of
Christmas Valley that
hosts a hidden trea-
sure — the Lost Forest
Research Natural Area.
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Gift the Gift of Wine Club
Anchor Club • Gold Club
Silver Club • Vine Club
Makenzie Whittle/The Bulletin
High winds whip up sand across the Fossil Lake area near Christmas Valley.
We’re in
this together
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