As I headed southeast back to Bend from the Mount Hood area I had the most bizarre experience I’ve ever had while driving. Once I got down off the mountain and the road leveled out I realized that the visibility on either side of the road was noticeably worse than it was just a few hours earlier (views of major mountains I had seen in the morning were now completely obstructed). The closer I got, the heavier and more brownish this haze became. I’ve never been in a sandstorm, but from what I’ve seen in movies this is what it looked like I was approaching. The brownish haze got so heavy that I turned my headlights on (to be seen, not to see) and light colored cars coming the other way looked like they had brown dirt on their hood and windshield (just a reflection). Really, really weird. Well, it was just smoke and once I passed through it the haze became more grayish and visibility improved, somewhat. The photos were taken after I passed through it, one showing the southern edge and the other the northern edge.
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