of miles of columnar basalt throughout the Columbia Plateau, but Trout Creek is special," says climber Blake Herrington , seen here on an approximately 90-foot route called Purple Pinky Eater, rated a 5.12. "For just a quarter mile or so, the rock quality is stellar, forming steep cracks and blank artes where the holds don't break, the cracks don't crumble, and the gear will hold." On this trip, Herrington and fellow climbers Scott Bennett and Matthew Van Bien were out to spend a few days climbing one-pitch rock climbs. "We wanted to climb in Trout Creek because it is in the middle of a desert, yet within an easy drive from the temperate rain forests of much of the Northwest," recalls Herrington, who had a severely injured finger that luckily did not prevent him from climbing this crack. When not climbing, the group enjoyed hanging out with the crowd of fly-fishermen at the campground and playing desert-terrain bocce ball. Getting the Shot Having previously climbed at Trout Creek in central Oregon, photographer Garrett Grove returned with one focus -- shooting great images. "The biggest challenge is getting new angles of cracks that more or less look the same," says Grove. "When I was there the first time, I noticed the contrast of lines, texture, and color between the standing basalt columns and the older fallen ones." In order to get the shot, he jugged up a fixed rope to the right of Purple Pinky Eater and set up above Herrington's