April Fools! It's not
really a rose:
I think the one that most blows me away is that Mt Adams, in southern Washington, is at least on occasion visible from here. Standing here, one is less than 500 feet above the flat ground of Bend proper, but that's enough to be able to see a peak 142 miles away. On an exceptionally clear day on Marys Peak in late winter of 1982, I think, I was able to see from Mt. Thielsen, near Crater Lake, to Mt Ranier in Washington- but that's nearly 4000 feet over the valley floor.
On the other hand, the elevation of Pilot Butte's crest, where this compass rose sits, is 4142 feet. The crest of Marys Peak is 4097 feet. So perhaps it's raw elevation rather than prominence that's important.
Photo unmodified. August 20, 2011.
FlashEarth Location. (I can generally put the cross hairs in FE view within a few feet or yards of the location where I shot the photo; in this case it's within inches!)
The Rose is a pretty as I remember it. Something of note is that during the entire first few months of 1980 one could see dark ash clouds and on a good day the very top of St. Helens. Pilot Butte was packed top to bottom with cars on May 18th 1980 with people watching the ash cloud. It was one of those experiences where awesome is the correct word.
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