Smith Rock State Park (Monkey Face spire)
— — a face the rock has been wearing for thirty million years.
Not only on a wall.
“A free-standing pillar of welded tuff, about 350 feet tall, with a hooded brow and a deep mouth weathered into its west face. Climbers pioneered the first route up it in 1960 and modern sport climbing in America largely began on the walls around it. From the Misery Ridge trail the spire reads as a profile against the high desert sky. From the river below it reads as a chimney standing apart from the main wall, with juniper at its feet.
Smith Rock State Park (Monkey Face spire), on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Monkey Face is a free-standing rock spire on the west side of Smith Rock State Park, about nine miles northeast of Redmond in central Oregon. It rises roughly 350 feet from its base, separated from the main wall by a notch, and is named for a hooded brow, deep eye sockets, and an open mouth weathered into the welded volcanic tuff. The spire is reached by hiking over Misery Ridge from the main parking area, or by walking the river trail around the back of the formation. It sits within an Oregon State Park established in 1960.
The spire is welded volcanic tuff, ash that fell during eruptions of the John Day caldera complex roughly thirty million years ago and fused under its own heat into a hard, fine-grained rock. Smith Rock as a whole became the proving ground for American sport climbing in the 1980s: Alan Watts established To Bolt or Not to Be in 1986, the country's first 5.14a, on the Dihedrals wall a short walk from the base of Monkey Face. The spire itself was first climbed in 1960 by a small Oregon team, on an aid route up the west face.
The shortest route to the base of the spire climbs Misery Ridge from the footbridge across the Crooked River, a steep mile that gains about 600 feet to the saddle and then drops to the back of Monkey Face. A longer, gentler approach follows the river trail around the north end of the park. Day-use parking is five dollars per vehicle as of 2026 and the main lot fills early on spring and autumn weekends. Climbing is permitted year-round, though raptor closures restrict some routes on neighbouring walls from late January into August.