Bill and Eileen's Travels: Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

John Day Fossil Beds (6/22 - 6/23)

From Bend we went northeast across Oregon to John Day, Oregon. We all though we would go over the Cascade Mountain Range and it would be flat. This was not the case. We went up, then down, then up, then down once again, and the further East we went the road got narrower. It was quite a ride but we finally arrived. After riding around the back streets we finally located the Campground which was on the edge of the County Fairgrounds.

The next day we backtracked about 39 miles to go to the Sheep Rock Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds. We went to the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center and Museum. The volcanic activity in the nearby Cascades over millions of years and the changing weather and erosion have created an area that has preserved fossils from a period of forty million years spanning the Age of Mammals.

The brochure says that there is nowhere else in the Western Hemisphere where the evolutionary story is preserved for this period of time. The Condon Center tells the story well. How everything was preserved and the museum has many examples of the fossils that have been uncovered. Very interesting.

We drove up the valley where the fossils have been unearthed and viewed the many unusual colors that are a result of the volcanic ash from millions of years mixed with various chemicals and eroded in different ways. It's also a very pretty valley.

It was a long way to drive for this, but we did get to see a very remote but beautiful area of Oregon. The next day we headed back the same road to Mt Hood Village Resort. The road was a little easier going West. It was probably easier because we knew what to expect. Including the sneaker tree. We are heading for one night near Mt Hood.

Life is good!

Preparation Lab!

Sheep Rock in the background. This is an old sheep farm that
was bought out by the Government. It is on the John Day Fossil Beds!

Sheep Rock. You need a lot of imagination!

On the ride up the valley!

John Day River near Kimberly Oregon!

Cutting Hay!

NSA Satellite.

The Famous Sneaker Tree. Rt. 26 (Nowhere Oregon)!

Click on the picture!

Bend Oregon (6/19 - 6/21)

Even before we got to Crown Villa RV we had a lot of excitement on our trip. The GPS sent us down a street, close to the park, that had a 12' 10" clearance. My bus is supposed to be only 12' 7" but I wasn't going to give it a try. Mark's coach is over 12" 10" so there was no question that he wouldn't make it. Apparently a cattle truck hit this bridge two days before we arrived and it killed four of the cows. Needless to say both of us had to unhook the cars and turn around. This was the first time in eight years that we had to unhook. Everything turned out fine and the RV park turned out to be very nice. It is a small resort and the sites are about 25X80. You could almost park a small cruise ship on these sites. I neglected to take a picture but this was probably the nicest park we have been in yet this trip.

The day we arrived we went to the Pilot Butt for the 360 degree view of the city and the surrounding area. The next day we went back south to Lava Butte which is part of the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. We watched the movie about all the Volcanic activity in this area then we when up on the Butt for a view of the Lava Flow Fields from the Newberry Volcanic eruption about 7000 years ago. This is an amazing thing to see. The fields around the welcome center are just cinders with very little growing on them even after 7000 plus years. From the Butt you can see many Lava Cones in the area. We did read that Mt Hood, just north of here, will probably be the next Volcano to do something along the Cascade Mountain Range. It might be another 10,000 years or longer though so we weren't worried about going there.

After our visit to Lava Butte we went to the High Desert Museum which had animals and a lot of information about the geology of the area. We were late in the day so most of the animals were not very active. It was also a little difficult for Eileen because it required a lot of walking.

Day three we headed out to a little town called Sisters which is Northwest of Bend and near the base of the Three Sisters Mountains. This was a neat little town with many interesting shops. After lunch we headed over to Smith Rocks SP with a stop on Old Route 97 at the Peter Skene Ogden Scenic Viewpoint. You look straight down about 300 feet into the Crooked River Basin.

Smith Rocks is a pretty location where the volcanic formations stand straight up and much of the land has been eroded away. From our viewpoint in the parking lot we could see the crowd that had walked to the top of the mountain. We think they might have been doing yoga or dancing on top of the mountain. We also saw many climbers on the cliffs across form where we were. Another pretty place.

We really enjoyed our time in Bend, which included a nice dinner at the Brew House downtown. Mark and Kathie sure enjoyed their nostalgic return.

Next morning we headed north and east to the John Day Fossil Beds. Sorry to leave such a great campground but all good things must end. Goodbye Bend we enjoyed our time here.

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