10.23-24.2018
Tues-Wed
Dropped
off our ballots and headed east again. Taking the same route we had taken a
couple of days ago through Yakima towards Goldendale. This time we crossed the
mighty Columbia River entering into Oregon. We found another Army Corps
of Engineers Recreation Area just on the other side. Rufus Landing has a
huge open area next to the river with lots of places to park all sizes of RVs.
We found a wonderful site looking up river at the John Day Dam. Tonight’s
dinner: grilled chicken, grilled zucchini and brown rice. This is a gourmet
meal for us as usually when camping we do something quick and easy like hot
dogs in the microwave. After dinner, we settled in our warm Espar heated
van and watched the trains go by and the patriotic lights on the dam.
Next morning, we headed south on Hwy 218 a more rural route than Hwy 97.
Lots of wind farms out here. We came across Cottonwood State Park.
A really nice park-$10 campsites, trails, solar power tables to charge usb
devices, free bikes to ride around the campground, bike repair station, showers
and flush toilets. What more could you ask for? We will have to
keep it in mind for future trips. Our drive took us through small towns
such as Condon, Fossil and Antelope, all which were decorated in the Halloween
spirit. We made our way to Clarno unit in the John Day Fossil National
monument. There, we hiked the 1.5 mile fossil trail looking for you
guessed it “fossils.” We found some leaves, roots and tree fossils.
Bobdog enjoyed the hike, sniffing what he could as we moved along. We
hiked to the end of the trail where the Clarno arch was located. Across
the way from the Clarno rocks lies the extinct volcano which today looks just
like another set of mountains. Our campsite for tonight is Trout Creek
Recreation (BLM $8) site along the Deschutes River. Most of the drive in
was on pavement which turned into a skinny paved road which went through a very
skinny tunnel under the railroad tracks. Eventually, we were on a dirt
road, but it was well maintained and the going was easy. We found a
great site near the river. Dinner tonight was spaghetti with ground
turkey. It was very tasty. Jo is probably in shock that we have
cooked healthy meals two nights in a row and used the bbq. Another great
day on the road comes to an end.
2
Madras area
10.25.18
Thursday
We left
Trout Creek campground headed towards Madras. The Madras visitor center
suggested driving out to Lake Billy Chinook and the Cove of the Palisades State
Park. The drive took us through farmlands and towns including Metolius and
Culver. Lake Billy Chinook is formed behind the Round Butte Dam.
The Crooked river, The Deschutes river and the Metolius River all feed into the
lake. We descended into the canyon of the Crooked arm of the lake and
then drove along the shoreline. Massive cliffs of basalt towered above
us. We crossed over the Crooked arm and the Deschutes arm and ascended
out of the canyon. We continued on the road towards the Metolius arm. The
pavement ended and the dirt road was washboard so we decided to stop at the
overlook. We walked a short distance to the Metolius balancing
rocks. There were several on the side of the hill where I guess the
conditions were right for erosion to make these interesting displays of
balancing rocks. We headed back and drove to the Round Butte Dam
overlook. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and PGE co-manage the
hydroelectric facilities. The tribe only opens the overlook on weekends
so we were not able to see it. It was time anyway to find a campsite.
There were several options but we chose the West Shore campground operated by
the Bureau of Reclamation located on Haystack Reservoir. All of the
campsites had great lake views and the price of $15 sounded great. Bobdog
and I strolled around and out onto the dock. We saw loons and Canada
geese swimming and feeding. Bobdog was very interested in the birds and I
had to hold him back. We wandered back to the van, ate dinner, and
enjoyed the lake view until the sunset.
3
Smith Rock State Park
10.26.18
Friday
Headed
east on SE Haystack drive towards Hwy 26. The pavement ended just after the
forest service campground but the road seemed in reasonable shape and we only
had 5 miles to go. We don’t mind driving dirt roads in general but it
really shakes the inside of the van up so if it’s really bad we don’t do
it. Along the way, we came across Grey Butte cemetery in the middle of no
where. Wonder why it’s out here with no towns close by. Lots of
elaborate gravestones. It’s fun to walk through these old cemeteries
reading the gravestones. As we wandered down Hwy 26, we decided to take a
diversion to check out a campground-Skull Hollow. That ended up changing the
day’s plans so instead of Prineville, we went to Smith Rock. It turned out
to be an excellent day for hiking as it was not too hot and actually sprinkled
on us a few times. With no really plans of which trails to hike, we threw
some water and a couple of snacks in a backpack and headed out. We
thought we would walk on the river trail for a short bit. As often is the case,
once we got out there we said will just go a little further. Before you
know it, we had completed the Misery Ridge and River trail Loop. As it
was Friday, it was busy with climbers and hikers. Lots of bolts in these
walls but I guess that’s what sport climbing is all about. We walked
clockwise starting with the River trail then the Misery Ridge trail so to me
the climb up seem more gradual. I think we ended up hiking about 5 or 6
miles with an elevation gain of 1200 ft. Bobdog, our 11 year old beagle, was
right there with us. I actually think we were holding him back. He
seemed to want to run straight up and down the hill. Bobdog thoughts,
“Why do these humans insist on staying on this path!” It was a great hike
and I highly recommend it. We ate dinner at the Terrebonne Depot.
Good food and we didn’t have to cook it. After dinner, headed towards
Prineville, our original destination. Found a BLM campsite ($8),
Stillwater which is appropriately named for this section of the Crooked River.
4
Prineville area
10.27.18
Saturday
This
morning, Kevin took off for a bike ride along the Crooked River just south of
Prineville. Bobdog and I drove up the canyon as well checking out the
many campgrounds and fly fishermen on the river. Bobdog was not really
interested though as he fell asleep sitting up in the front seat. I ran
into Kevin at Bowman Dam, a 245 ft high, 800 ft across earth filled dam.
Kevin decided to ride back through the canyon while I decided to continue on to
make it a loop trip.
Just
passed the dam on the Prineville Reservoir side was Powder House Cove State
Park. It was a good spot to stop for lunch. I watched a woman
getting ready to go kayaking as her dogs bounced along side of her. She
made three long trips getting her gear down to the water. Wonder why she
didn’t find a closer place to launch? Maybe she wanted the exercise.
I
continued on Hwy 27 until the pavement ended and as there was no cell service,
it seemed like a good time to turnaround. I wandered back to Prineville
via South Reservoir and Millican Road. The road was very straight and
also had several OHV pull out areas. They even had OHV xing signs.
I can see why Kevin chose to ride back through the canyon. I passed one
of the Les Schwab’s facilities with stacks of shipping containers and tires in
the yard; Prineville is their home base.
Stopping
at Ochoco viewpoint, Bobdog and I took a short walk. The viewpoint
overlooks Prineville. I picked up Kevin at the Good Bike store which is
not only a bike store but has a lounge that sells beer as well.
Tonight’s
campground is Ochoco County Park. We paid a little more tonight $20 but
they have showers and it was time. We are the only ones in the
campground except for the host. I expect there will soon be a sign
saying “Closed for the Season.” We’ve seen this sign many times while
traveling off season.
5
John Day Fossil Beds
Painted
Hills
10.28.18
Sunday
Today,
we spent the day exploring the Painted Hills of Oregon. Beautiful
displays of red, yellow, and tan stripes on the surrounding hills. These
stripes are a record of climate change millions of years ago. The red
bands formed in a warmer, wetter climate while the yellow and tan bands
indicate a drier climate. The black spots in some areas are caused by
manganese concentrations, indicators of some type of plant.
As you
look at the hills, you can see why they got their name.
We
explored three other areas: Leaf Hill, Red Hill, and Painted Cove.
Buried
in Leaf Hill are fossilized remnants of plants over 30 million years in age and
evidence of prehistoric ecosystems. The hill is fenced off as you are not
allowed to look for fossils, so we scouted at the edge of the fence for
fossils. We found a couple of tiny rocks with what looked like a
fossilized leaf.
Just up
the road was Red Hill. A short walk took us closer to the hill.
From there you could see the crunchy dry surface. Nearby was a small
white hill. This is an exposed spot of the Clarno formation which was
buried in a volcanic eruption and today is covered by the John Day
formation.
The
final area we explored was Painted Cove. A nature trail tells you
interesting facts as you make your way around the hills. The hills are
very fragile and there are keep off signs. Yet, either people can’t read
or don’t care and have walked on the hills which scars them permanently.
We
drove through the small town of Mitchell which is on the Transamerica Bike
route. The town has a small park where cyclists an overnight.
It was
time to find a campsite for the evening. We drove up NF 12 about 6 miles
to Barnhouse Campground. Surprisingly, on a paved road. The
campground is nestled among the trees so the only view of the valley was from
the road. As we drove in, we noticed a smoke coming from a fire pit.
Looks like someone didn’t put out their fire completely. Kevin
broke out our shovel and extinguish it. This is another campground that
we have all to ourselves. It is a free campground and looks to maybe be
one that hunters use mostly. We saw what looked like a place where you
would hang your deer to clean it. The night was very chilly as a storm
was passing through so we turned on the Espar heater. It’s getting a good
work out this trip.
6
Hwy 26 between Mitchell and Austin
10.29.18
Monday
Woke up
to a chilly 33 degrees and it wasn’t long before light snow started to
fall. The campground is at 5200ft so we were in the snow zone for this
storm system, but it wasn’t sticking. Cold-Rainy day so we did our
sightseeing from the van. We continued driving on the TransAmerica bike
route checking out all the places that we had planned to go in the Fall of 2017
before the smoke from the fires made us change our plans.
A shoe
tree between Mitchell and Dayville had the most shoes in a tree that I’ve ever
seen in my travels. I think of my dad whenever I pass these shoe
trees. He spray-painted a pair of his shoes orange and threw them in a
tree on US395 near Hallelujah Junction, California.
Stopped
at Mascall Formation Overlook for 360 degree view. Cute towns along the
way: Dayville, Mt Vernon, Prairie City. We spotted a huge herd of
pronghorn gazing in a field. Tonight we are camping at Bates State Park
$11. Again, we are the only ones in the campground. This campground
has no hookups so I think that is what keeps most Rvers away and it’s maybe too
cold for most tent campers on the 30s. Kevin built the van so we can go
anywhere and still be able to run all the necessities: coffee maker, toaster,
microwave, refrigerator, heat, hot water etc. It’s wonderful!
7
Scouting Oregon’s Old West Scenic Bike Route
10.30.18
Tuesday
Woke up
to another cold morning at Bates State Park so not too eager to get out of
bed. But, we finally made a plan for the day’s activity. Oregon has
developed several bike routes throughout the state. We decided to explore
for a future ride, the Old West Scenic Bikeway, a 175 mile loop with some
challenging elevation gain. Leaving the campground, we turned onto county
road 20. Passed a recent fire, hopefully it’s out. The way took us
through some pretty country with cliffs and creeks running along the
road. A cow greeted us on the road and then decided that was enough and
mooved on. At Ritter Butte, we got a bird’s eye view of the surrounding
golden hills. Then, we started getting back into the John Day formations
with geological markers along the route. We stopped for lunch at Big Bend
Recreation Site. It sits along the North Fork John Day River.
Camping is available for $5. It was really nice campsite, but we rolled
on. The towns along this side of the loop are really small: Long Creek,
Monument, and Kimberly with limited services. We completed the loop via
Hwy 26 going through the towns of Dayville, Mt Vernon, John Day, and Prairie
City where there are more services. Overall, looks like a good ride
mostly on a rural road even with the lack of roadside shoulders. Finished
at Bates State Park for the night. Looks like we have the whole
campground to ourselves again. Bobdog and I took a stroll to Bates Pond.
It was mighty cold outside, 34 degrees, so it was a short walk and we ran back
to the warm van. I told Bobdog to find the van and he seem to know
exactly where it was. Smart Beagle!
8
Bates State Park to Halfway
10.31.18
Wednesday
Happy
11th Birthday Bobdog, Bella, and Cedar!
Chilly
enough this morning that there is a light dusting of snow on the ground.
Glad Kevin had morning duties with Bobdog. Brrr!
It’s
official, the campground is closed for the season. We saw the sign as we
left. It was probably the ranger driving through at 6am, looking to close
the gates until he saw us in the campground.
Decided
to check out the small town of Sumpter. Gold was discovered in 1862 and
the town’s population grew to 3,500. However in 1917, it suffered the
fate of many mining towns, fire burned 17 blocks of the town. Dwindling
gold returns and the fire ended the boom. There are still a few old
interesting buildings standing so not a ghost town just yet.
Sumpter
also has a gold dredge. These are huge machines that float in their own
self-made pond and wench themselves upstream, mining the gold as they go and
depositing tailings behind. It completely destroys the riverbed.
You can see tailings for miles. The Sumpter dredge covered 1,100 acres
over 40 years. In its lifetime, this dredge made $4.5 million at $35
per troy ounce. Once it became no longer economically feasible, the
dredge was left where it stopped as it would be too expensive to remove. This
dredge closed in 1954, more than $100,000 in debt.
Wandering
around we found a beaver pond but didn’t see any beavers and there was a
campfire burning near the dredge so we warmed ourselves up as it was very
chilly.
Explored
Baker City with its many historic buildings including the Geiser Grand Hotel,
Antlers Hotel, and many churches.
Next
stop, Oregon Trail Interpretive center. Lots of great displays and
information: covered wagons, pioneers and their stock, stories of hardship and
more. There are several trails as well, one leads to wagon ruts.
Sadly, we did not have time to see and do it all as we got there an hour before
they closed. We will just have to come back.
It was
now after 4pm and we needed to find a place for the night. We saw several great
boondocking spots, but with the lure of showers at Hewitt & John Holcomb
Parks near Richland we continued on. We were disappointed however as the
campground was really just a parking lot that had spaces labeled as campsites
and the showers were nowhere in site. We decided to move on as we didn’t
feel like paying for a site in a parking lot. Heck, we can do that for
free at Walmart.
On our
way out, we saw another area that looked like a campground. We found a
coin-operated shower near there, only one was open. The water must have
high deposits of iron because everything was stained a rusty color. Not
my favorite thing to shower in but once the water was running it wasn’t too
bad.
By now
it was dark and we hadn’t eaten yet, so do we stay put, paying for a parking
lot spot or move on to find a boondocking spot? Kevin says “Hey, Halfway
has a couple of restaurants and I’m sure we can find someplace to park there,
so off we went.
It was
dark and foggy between Richland and Halfway and there was a giant grade to go
over. Kevin was driving 20 mph as you couldn’t see very far ahead.
A deer jumped out onto the road but Kevin’s quick reflexes avoided a
disaster. One of the reasons, we don’t like to drive after dusk. Those
pesky deer haven’t figured out that cars and deer don’t mix.
As we
got within a mile of Halfway, we noticed a sign for Hells Canyon Info Wayside
and we said there’s our boondocking spot for the night. We continued onto
Halfway and ate at the Main Place in the lounge/bar and had a pretty good meal
of meatloaf and pork chops. After dinner headed back to the wayside for
the night.
9
Hells Canyon Scenic Drive
11.01.18
Thursday
As it
was dark when we came in last night, we were pleasantly surprised to see we had
parked near what we call a “Pepper Shaker”. (Burner for waste products at
sawmill.) These are no longer used but we think they look cool.
Toured
the town of Halfway. Our good friend, Don, went to High School here so we
drove around until we found the High School. Near the museum was the
Halfway old jail and we passed the town cemetery.
(From
Brandi Aubrey: Very cool! As you said, Dad went to HS there, and that’s where
he graduated. My grandfather ran the rock crusher on the construction crew that
built the dam. Dad, his twin, and my grandparents lived in a trailer on the
edge of town as you drove out to the dam that many of the construction families
lived in. Kids were either “dam kids” if their parents worked on the
construction of the dam, or “townies” if they grew up there.)
As we
entered the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway, there was a barrel with a sign asking
grouse hunters to place a wing and tail in the barrel for harvest
information. So I guess we won’t be hiking since we forgot our orange
vests.
It was
sunny, so we were optimistic that we would have great views of the canyon, but
as we got closer to the overlook it became increasingly cloudy. We waited
for an hour in the hope that it would clear, but it did not. We had a
great view of clouds! Just a few hundred feet lower and you were out of
the clouds, so another trip will have to be made here. As we drove
downhill passing other cars coming up, Kevin said “Prepare yourself for
disappointment.” LOL
We saw
two grouse running from the road. Good luck to them.
We
checked out a couple of campgrounds as we headed towards Joseph but we decided
to get to lower elevations where it might be warmer. Continued through
the town of Joseph onto Minam where we found a State Park campsite along the
Wallowa River for $10.
10
Dam Days: Snake River Dams to John Day Dam
11.02.18
- 11.04.18 Friday-Sunday
Two
days of exploring dams on the Snake and Columbia Rivers as we work our way
home.
There
are four dams on the lower Snake River that were built by Army Corps of
Engineers (ACE). These are concrete gravity dams with navigation locks,
spillways, powerplants and fish ladders. We visited the three lower dams.
First
stop, Little Goose Dam on the Snake River which was completed in 1970.
Lake Bryan is formed behind the dam. We checked out the fish ladder
viewing windows and saw a few fish swimming around (salmon, shad, bass).
There
were several fishermen near the exit to the fish ladder and a few lucky
fishermen had caught a couple of steelhead. While we were in the fish
viewing room, one of the fishermen came in to check out the fish. He saw
a big one and said I’m going to catch that one and hurried out to his fishing
pole.
We were
greeted by a friendly employee at the juvenile fish facility who said it was
closed for the season, but he could give us a tour if we liked. He told
us about the operations of the facility, ACE’s perspective on fish survival and
mortality and the various ways for the fish to pass through or around the
dam.
Next
stop, Lower Monumental Dam which became operational in 1969. It was a
long rural road to this dam. Since the fish ladder was on the other side,
I don’t think it gets many visitors on this side. This dam forms Lake
Herbert G West.
The
final dam on the Snake River forming Lake Sacajawea is Ice Harbor. It
became operational in 1961. Below this dam, the river joins the Columbia
River where another series of dams continue to control the river. Since
Ice Harbor Dam is located near the tri-cities, this dam is very popular and has
a visitor center. However, I guess not popular enough as it was closed
for the season the day we visited.
It is
interesting to see these dams as there is controversy surrounding them.
We recently watched a movie called “Dam Nation” which gives a different opinion
then ACE’s.
We
continued following the Columbia River eventually stopping at Cliffs Park which
sits below the John Day Dam. This is the newest of Columbia River dams,
it was completed in 1972 and has the highest lift of 110 feet. We watched
barges going through the locks and at night, this Dam is lit up in red, white
and blue.
We
camped at sites managed by ACE along the rivers. No frills just a big
dirt lot with no amenities except one pit toilet. Great views of Lake
Bryan and Little Goose Dam on Snake River, then the next night downstream of
the John Day Dam and surrounding cliffs on the Columbia River.
And so
ends our trip as we make our way home, leaving the sunshine behind, driving
towards the grey curtain atop Snoqualmie Pass.
