August 14-16, 2015
[Note: This post is late. WiFi and mobile phone access is extremely limited in this part of the country. As a rule it is absent. In addition, the wild fires destroyed several key links in service. I’m posting this from the parking lot of the Ranger station in East Glacier National Park. It is very slow going.]
Leaving Lassen Volcanic National Park, we headed North to the Bend, Oregon and a campsites in Prineville State Park. We ran into heavy smoke from wild fires East of Bend – very sad. The last time we traveled through here, everything was green and lush. The effect of the drought is present everywhere. Having said that, the residents of Oregon havn’t quite connected the dots to put in place water conservation measures. We saw no less than half a dozen people hosing off their driveways, and crop fields being watered with sprinkling systems during the heat of the day. Wake up Oregon!
On reaching our campground, we found the reservoir at only 30 percent of capacity. Because of low water, no motor boats were allowed, just personal watercraft. Under normal conditions this would have been a beautiful area.
Prineville reservoir
Given the bad air, and serious drought we decided not to stay, and leave for our next stop- Pendleton, Oregon. Just four miles East of Prineville, Brent’s trailer blew and shredded a tire. He pulled of the road at the entrance to a six-shack hamlet. A couple of the colorful residents were very helpful. One of them even suggested [based on his personal experience] that we pray, and that we would then find a new tire to solve our problem. We didn’t pray! After successfully [with local help] changing to the spare tire, we backtracked to Prineville to service the tires. I may repeat myself, but the people in this area could not be more helpful or kind. It turned the whole incident into a good experience.
One of many burned forests along our route
Rolling plains
Many beautiful rivers
Rolling hills in North Eastern corner of Oregon
After a three-hour delay, we set off again for the Northeastern part of Oregon. Generally unpopulated, very few cars, but beautiful rolling hills with rock formations, rivers, and canyons along the way. We then came upon a surprise – The John Day Fossil Bed National Monument. This 14,000 acre site is made up of three different areas. Given our time constraint, we only visited the Sheep Rock Unit. It is a very active dig where new discoveries are made regularly. This region was the first in which scientists discovered fossils from five consecutive prehistoric epochs spanning 40 million years during the era known as the Age of Mammals and Flowering Plants or Cenozoic Era. Evidence of volcanic activity, environmental changes, and ancient plant and animal life are abundant. As an example, they have found fossils of new specie of elephant, as well as Asian cats that migrated to this region from Asia. This is an exciting place to visit and to learn. Given that we only had one hour, we could only get an introduction. The Rangers recommend spending two days at the monument. Yet another reason to come back to the area.
John Day Monument
Mountains of the John Day dig
Unfortunately, there is no escaping the smoke and ash from all the wild fires. Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana are on fire. We could see several burn-sites on distant mountains. The little village of Mount Vernon was deeply effected. The gas station the attendant and her family were forced to evacuate their home. The homes of thirty-five residents and friends had been burned, and the count was going up by the hour.
Northeast Oregon is literally a place of highs and lows. We went over no fewer than seven, 4,000 feet high mountain passes. One hundred and fifty miles of winding roads, up and down. It was a driving challenge all the way.
Special Cafe for dinner. Ugh!
What? No guns? Darn.
Food dishes are large to compensate for quality
Since it was getting late in the day, we looked for a place to eat dinner. A roadside sign announced a great café in a little village about five miles out of our way. So we decided to go for it – another surprise. This little village, Ukaiha, only had about six buildings, half of them boarded up and abandoned. But we did find, the café – the photo above gives you a sense. The place had only 6 tables, and a clear sign at the entrance prohibiting guns. Since it was Saturday night there were a dozen trucks or motorcycles in town to visit their local bar. We were the only ones not wearing cowboy hats. It was a rough group. The café is a greasy spoon place, but the food was reasonable – a unusual experience. No, we won’t be going back. We finally reached our campsite in Pendleton after dark.
The Pendleton Woolen Mill
Pendleton is best known for its woolens. All the wool is manufactured here, but the end products – blankets, shirts, jackets and other products are made abroad. We all left with a few Pendleton ‘goodies’.
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