Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

You think you know what Oregon looks like. This is where lush forests cover snow-capped mountains, where beautiful beaches line the Pacific coast, and where sagebrush dots vast stretches of high desert.

But there are also places in the state that don’t look like they belong in the Pacific Northwest, let alone on planet Earth.

These alien landscapes are found in the desert, by the ocean and deep underground, but walking through them might transport you to another world entirely. One has even served as inspiration for a famous fictional alien planet.



If you really want to get away in Oregon, take a trip to these otherworldly destinations, where you can discover a whole new facet of our fascinating natural world.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

PAINTED HILLS

The main attraction of the John Day Fossil Beds and one of the Seven Wonders of Oregon, the Painted Hills are a strange sight to behold. The high desert hills are banded with yellow, black and red, the colors shifting subtly with the changing light of day. Other areas nearby look downright Martian, with boardwalks that pass through rust-colored mounds. There is perhaps no place as alien in all of Oregon.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

BLUE BASIN

If not for the Painted Hills, Blue Basin would be the main attraction at the John Day Fossil Beds. The blue-green canyon of claystone badlands is certainly otherworldly, with a hue that changes with the sun and can't seem to be properly captured in a photograph. The blue claystone also holds fossils of strange, prehistoric animals like tiny three-toed horses and armor-plated crocodiles.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

OREGON DUNES

Wander through the Oregon Dunes and you might think you've been transported to Tatooine. In fact, the 40-mile stretch of sand dunes on the Oregon coast was the inspiration for Arrakis, the desert planet from classic sci-fi novel "Dune." Hikers can see the desert-like landscape for themselves from several access points, though the John Dellenback Dunes Trailhead is probably the best.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

OREGON CAVES

The Oregon Caves Monument and Preserve is literally from another time and place. Also known as "the marble halls of Oregon," the sprawling cave was created when ancient bacterial reefs offshore were forced under the Earth's crust, then pushed back up with the rise of the Klamath Mountains. The many spectacular marble formations inside the cave were created drip-by-drip over millions of years. See it on a guided tour led by park rangers between late March and early November.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

TIDE POOLS

Both of the land and of the ocean, tide pools are wondrous places, home to strange and colorful lifeforms who live with the rhythm of the waves. Most tide pools on the Oregon coast are found in pockets carved out of basalt or sandstone, shaped into beautiful, abstract formations over millions of years. Wait for low tide and lose yourself in these tiny, alien worlds.

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Terry Richard/The Oregonian

ALVORD DESERT

The flat, cracked earth sticks out like a sore thumb in the southeast corner of Oregon's high desert. During wet seasons, the Alvord Desert is a shallow alkali lake, but it reliably dries up by summer and early fall, when visitors can drive and camp on the playa. In addition to looking otherworldly, it's also an amazing place to look at other worlds.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

BURNED FORESTS

It's always sad to see one of Oregon's majestic forests burn, but there can still be joy found in the life that later emerges. Those scenes tend to be eerily beautiful, as wildflowers and butterflies flourish among vibrant green underbrush, surrounded by gray and blackened snags. To discover this alien beauty, head to Eight Lakes Basin, Mill Creek Wilderness or Angel's Rest.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

BIG OBSIDIAN FLOW

One of many volcanic attractions in Oregon, the Big Obsidian Flow is unique for what it's made of. Obsidian is a dark, natural glass, formed when lava cools without crystallizing. It's not exactly rare, but it's certainly unusual to hike through a huge field of obsidian – especially one that rests near the crater of a collapsed volcano. Find it at the Newberry Volcano near Bend.

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--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB