May in Central Oregon

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After our major trip the first weekend in May, we stayed relatively close to home the rest of the month. We made a couple of trips to Bend and a scenic drive through central Oregon

The main point of our first trip was to see Crater Lake – it was definitely worth the visit! The road to the Rim center is open year round. They had the road open about a mile to the west to an observation point and just a few hundred yards to the east. Even in late May, the amount of snow still on the ground in the Cascades is incredible.

The road crews can clear just 1/4 mile a day (on a good day). They aim to open the north entrance first and the entire rim road by July. In the summer they offer boat rides on the lake - but right now you can't get down to the shore. Too steep and too much snow.

The rim road around Crater lake

Tom and Sally at Crater Lake

See how deep the snow gets

The snow at the Crater Lake Visitor Center

Crater Lake

View of Mt Mazama (Crater Lake) From Klamath Marsh Refuge

We stayed overnight at Klamath Falls – enjoyed the hot tub and the hockey game at a nearby sports bar. The town looks very interesting. We hope to make a longer visit and really enjoy the area next time. On the way home, we drove down to the California line and east through the Lower Klamath NWR. The terns were splashing down in the canals right next to the road – pretty spectacular. There were a couple of places where we could have driven out into the refuge on gravel roads. Looks like you could spend a whole day here!

Lower Klamath Refuge

We're back in California (for a few miles)

Mt Shasta from the road south of Klamath Falls

We passed through Lakeview, a very small ranching town in the high desert southwest of Burns. We ate lunch at a great Mexican place. You can drive straight over the mountains and backcountry from here to Frenchglen across BLM land and the Hart Mtn Refugre. We decided not to drive that way home. It had been a long day already and the gravel roads from Lakeview to Frenchglen are not supposed to be very well maintained.

We had read about Wagontire in the Harney County literature. I had expected a little more in the way of a town. It's just a store and RV park basically...

Last trip to Bend

Our next Bend adventure was right before Memorial Day. We did our shopping on Thursday – getting ready for the Alaska adventure and taking advantage of the lack of sales tax in Oregon. On both visits to Bend, we enjoyed dinner and a hockey game at a new sports bar called Rivals on Division St.

We spent Friday doing a little sightseeing and just messing around in town. We drove up to the top of Pilot Butte. Pretty views the Cascade range. (Pictures will be added at a later date – come back and look later!). We enjoyed Drake Park along the Deschutes River in downtown Bend. It was a lovely afternoon. Kayakers, baby strollers and Frisbees shared the park with brand-new baby ducklings and goslings.

Pine Mountain Observatory near Bend is open to the public every Friday and Saturday during the summer. This was their first session of the summer. They have an opening program explaining what you’ll see. Then they show you the big research telescope – you can’t look through that one. It’s attached to a camera. They do have an older large research telescope that does have an eyepiece. We got to see Saturn and its rings. As we were waiting our turn to look through the scope, we spotted a very bright object crossing the sky. Tom looked it up later on the NASA website and figured it was probably the Space Station.
Our time at Malheur is now at an end. After a great potluck cookout on Wednesday, we headed north. The RV is fixed and we are preparing to head across the border this morning. There will be one more post on the birds and scenery at Malheur later. Look for news about our trip to Alaska later this month. We’ll try to post in when we get to Tok or Fairbanks.

Eastern Oregon geology and a trip to the beach

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John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
We have already talked about visiting Diamond Craters – a volcanic area right next door to us at Malheur.

Diamond Craters - 6000 yr old lake

Tom at Diamond Craters

In early may, we headed toward the beach and took the scenic through John Day Fossil Bed National Monument. Basically, most of eastern Oregon is part of a massive, well preserved series of fossil beds. They were discovered in the last half of the 19th century, probably as a result of the Oregon migration and the subsequent gold rushes. Paleontologists have been studying the area since.
We stopped at the visitor center – the film was informative and the visitor center ranger was even more helpful. This area has been a center of volcanic activity for 45 million years (I think that number is right). The ranger helped us connect the Diamond Crater volcanic activity to the John Day area activity. He also pointed out a very large meteor crater on the Nevada/Oregon border that is related to the Diamond Crater period. Evidently there is evidence of large cracks in a circular pattern centered on this crater. Have to do some more research on the interesting topic.

View from the John Day Fossil Beds Visitor Ctr - green rocks!
One of the reasons that the fossil beds in eastern Oregon are so interesting is that there were a series of volcanic eruptions that created layers of fossils during the whole "era of the mammals". The lava flows and ash layers can be dated, thus allowing paleontologists to date and sequence the various species found. The Clarno unit of the John Day Fossil Beds is northwest of the visitor center in a remote area. There are beautiful cliffs formed by lava flows and extensive plant and animal fossils.

Cliffs at Clarno

Fossil of a leaf - millions of years old

Shaniko
Shaniko is way out in the middle of nowhere, but 120 years ago it was actually the wool shipping capital of the world. So we stopped to take a picture just for Suzi, MIke and Bethany, our shepherds.

Shaniko - from wool-shipping capital of the world to an "inhabited ghost town (?)"

A Shoe Tree

We passed through lots of gorgeous open country, with views of Mt St Helens, Mt Jefferson, Mt Adams, Mt Hood, etc. It's nice to take the back roads in the truck - not somewhere we'd go in the RV.

Mt Adams

The Dalles
This is where the Oregon Trail reached the Columbia River. Most of the emigrants built rafts and floated their wagons down the river or paid someone to carry them down-river. Some headed southwest on the Barlow cutoff, it was cheaper to go overland, but just as difficult.
We stopped to eat supper and watch a hockey playoff game.

Columbia River Gorge
From just east of Portland to The Dalles is the gorge of the Columbia River. Years ago it was a raging river, but today, there are several dams providing hydroelectric power and recreation in the area.
A gorgeous place, but we didn't have time to stop and play – we’re on our way to the beach!

Grayland Beach State Park
We finally made it to the beach – it took two days, but taking the scenic route was fun. We spent a couple of really nice days visiting with Tom's cousin, Darlene, and her husband, Tony. They have a 34' motorhome - we slept in the back of our truck. Though it rained most of the day Saturday, we still had a great visit. The site was just over the dunes from the beach - you could walk out and check on the birds and the sunset within a couple of minutes.
It was too rainy and rough on Saturday to see the gray whales, but after we left Sunday morning, Darlene and Tony spotted some.

Beach near Grayland

Westport Light
Very neat old lighthouse. It is so far back from the beach, we drove right by down to the walking trail on the beach. We couldn't find the lighthouse - until Tom of us headed back to the car and there it was!

Westport Light

On Sunday we headed back home, taking the more direct route past Mt Hood and through Redmond. We did take one scenic bypass to Prineville (OK, really we were hungry). But the trip home only took about 5-6 hours.

Scenic view on the way to John Day