Road Trip – Page 2

May 9, 2021May 6, 2021

Ancient Lake

Crystallized minerals encrust rocks along the lakeshore. This is Lake Abert, a remote saltwater lake in Oregon’s high desert … and it is disappearing.

A recent Oregon Natural Desert Assoc. (ONDA) Zoom lecture made us aware of a spot we’d been near but never by and offered the perfect day trip. This week we headed to Lake Abert.

At the end of the last ice age the melting glaciers created the 460 square mile fresh water Lake Chewaucan. Then over a 2 million year span, the Pleistocene epoch, the water slowly receded and as it dried up alkali and salt deposits were left. Summer lake and Lake Abert, some 20 miles apart are the remnants of that lake. Abert is a relatively shallow endorheic (no outlet) basin that holds a saltwater lake.

We drove the indirect route via the Christmas Valley Highway (County 5-14). Cutting north off OR 31 at Fort Rock and then east to the town of Christmas Valley.

The Christmas Valley Highway takes us across a high desert plain of scrub and sage. There are patches of land with hay crops and cattle herds but without irrigation the land is sage brush on high desert sand.

OR 395 skirts the edge of Lake Abert and the Abert Rim. Numerous pull-outs provide a chance to view wildlife. There is no food, gas or lodging nearby.

We didn’t see bighorn sheep, but did spot several bald eagles.

At OR 395 we turn south and head toward Paisley OR. We are on the western edge of a fault scarp that raises to 2500 feet, topped with 800 feet of basalt.

This is the Abert Rim, home to Big Horn sheep (transplants from Hart Mountain) and a national hang gliding competition.

On the other side of OR 395 is the rocky shore of Lake Abert – Oregon’s only saltwater lake.

We hiked down to take a closer look. Lake Abert is the largest saline lake in the Pacific Northwest and one of the most important shorebird habitats in the intermountain west.

Humans have been living here for at least 11,000 years. Archeological surveys have identified more than thirty prehistoric sites some with round stone house pits, domestic artifacts, petroglyphs, and pictographs. there are no signs or markers to identify the historic district.

While some of the house pits and petroglyphs are close to the highway, there are no signs or markers to identify them as a way to protect the fragile sites.

We saw very few shore birds. By the end of this summer Lake Abert will likely be dry.

Abert was once a major stop on the migration of 3.5 million shore birds.

It’s saline waters offered a perfect ecology for brine shrimp and alkali flys, but no fish.

The high concentrations of sodium and alkali can be seen in the mineral crusts coating rocks and boulders on the lake’s shore line. Climate change, extended droughts and battles over Klamath Basin water rights play equal roles in the draining of Oregon’s only salt water lake.

May 2, 2021May 1, 2021

A Blue Basin

We visited a beautiful, overlooked wonder at the John Day Fossil Beds … Blue Basin.

Oregon has an abundance of natural wonders and otherworldly places. Most of these destinations are an easy drive from our house. Thus we are making it a point to visiting as many as possible.

This week we headed back to the John Day Fossil Beds. We drove past Mitchell about 30 miles to the Sheep Rock Unit. The “Thomas Condon Paleontology Center” is located here. A recently constructed visitor building (open Fri, Sat, & Sun.) has the mandatory gift shop but also some excellent interpretive displays that detail the site’s history and fossils.

However, today we are headed to the north edge of the Sheep Rock Unit and the Blue Basin.

Sage brush dots the hills as we hiked our way into the heart of the basin.

There is a 4 mile loop trail that takes you to an overlook or a shorter 2 mile walk “trail through time” that follows the lower edge of the basin’s sculpted walls.

The shorter trail takes you into the canyon. Interpretive panels and fossil replicas are spaced throughout the trail.

A total of 13 metal grated surface bridges make it difficult on dog’s paws. Jack managed to carry Tip over several before they both called it quits.

Dogs are allowed (leashed) on the trail. However, there are a series of bridges crossing the ravine bottom decked with a paw-poking metal grates.

Tip wanted nothing to do with these and the alternate routes were just too precarious. He and I did make it to the entrance of the basin, found a shaded bench to wait while JQ, camera in hand, documented the blue-green canyon for our blog.

A mere 44 million years ago this place was a tropical forest filled with lush vegetation (172 species) abundant wildlife including three toed horses and saber tooth tigers. Then 7 million years ago a volcano spewed hot ash and gas over a 13,000 square mile area. The event brought devastation to the plant and animal life but encased a treasure trove for 20th century geology and paleontology.

These fossil beds, exposed by erosion, contain saber-toothed nimravids, three-toed horses, tortoises and dogs.

Vegetation from that landscape turned into a unique blue-green soil that eventually eroded into what is now the Blue Basin. The Painted Hills site, it’s red and green layered hills seems to garner the most attention and is definitely a must see. However, Blue Basin is equally as fascinating and well worth the additional 30 minute drive.

April 4, 2021April 3, 2021

Finding Feathers

Clean up of the Holiday Farm Fire includes felling thousands of trees and stabilizing hillsides. Some areas are little more than ash and rubble.

This week we drove through a wildfire, or rather the aftermath of one of the many forest fires that burned Oregon last summer. 2020 was the most destructive fire season on record in the state.

Highway 126 winds along the McKenzie River

On this day we followed Highway 126 along the Mckenzie River and drove through the middle of the Holiday Farm Fire.

This blaze started on the sixth of September and when it was finally contained. 65 days later, it had burned 175 thousand acres, destroyed 760 structures and killed one person.

The magnitude of this, or any wildfire, is not completely captured by news accounts. Even video reports don’t give you a prospective on how much 175,000 acres burned is really, nor how arbitrary the destruction.

There were plots of ground leveled to bare foundation sitting next to houses untouched by fire. This went on for miles as we drove past the ongoing clean up efforts.

Eight months later they are still clearing debris and felling damaged trees as they attempt a return to regular life. However, there are also a lot of people getting out and lots of properties are ‘on the market’.

We were on this road heading west to Eugene to locate flytying supplies. I’ll admit that tying the flies used in fishing may not be a money saving prospect. Hobbies are rarely a path to frugal endeavors. This house is engaged in a number of hobbies that require regular re-supply and flyfishing is just one of them.

The pandemic has moved the acquisition of materials to online sources but there are also some issues with that. The major issue for a flytyer is some of the bits attached to hooks need a color match.

While there is no shortage of online sources for these materials this isn’t the best method for choosing the “proper” item. I find it necessary, particularly with feathers, to make these choices in person.

The pandemic also exacerbated the supply chain. It’s kind of important to support local fly shops but this supply chain issue has greatly reduced materials at our local shops. In the case of hackle feathers the choice is none. So the answer to this dilemma is a road trip to one of Oregon’s great supply centers The Caddis Fly Shop in Eugene. This place had a wall of hackle choices and of course a number of other essential items. then back on the road and home but this time via Willamette pass Highway 58.

February 14, 2021February 13, 2021

Painted Hills Pictures

Painted Hills Overlook features a panoramic view of the hills. The trail is accessible year-round, but can be icy in the winter.

The otherworldly nature of the Painted Hills is why we keep coming back to this unit of the John Day Fossil Beds. The guidebooks suggest spring or fall as good times to visit. This just means that those are the seasons with the most visitors at the monument.

Mitchell, the closest town, is a two hour drive through the Ochoco National Forest. There are three units that make up the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

Painted Hills is at the southwest corner of the complex. An hour and a half north is the Clarno Unit or 45 minutes East is the Sheep Rock Unit. These three sites offer a great look at the paleontological riches of Oregon and as you can imagine the drive between sites is rich in geological marvels.

The Clarno Unit offers the oldest exposed layers and fossil encrusted rocks while at the Sheep Rock unit you can tour the Thomas Condon Center and view fragments of ancient animals under glass.

However, the Painted Hills Unit presents a much larger canvas where stratified layers of soil show off eons of earth history in a very colorful manner.

We make seasonal trips to Painted Hills and find that the colored layers are more pronounced in the winter and spring.

In the spring we plan to try hiking the Blue Basin Loop, at the northern edge of the Sheep Rock Unit, and take in a somewhat different ancient landscape.

February 7, 2021February 6, 2021

Back roads and weathered wood

I guess we were feeling restless and in need of a real road trip. Winter snows have yet to arrive so we headed north on Highway 97.

At the Northern end of our loop, I-84 and The Dalles Bridge

The idea was to follow this major arterial to the Columbia River Gorge and then wander backroads south along the east side of the Cascades – the more desolate the better.

The photographic target for this journey … abandoned buildings and weathered wood.

With no set destination our wandering led us to the discovery of the day … an old Catholic Cemetery with headstones dating back to the mid – 1800s.

The settling and re-settling of rural Oregon is most evident along the small state routes. Roads connect names on a map where the main structure of commerce is a grain elevator.

Once you climb out of the gorge there’s an expanse of furrowed fields with sprouts of winter wheat in perfect rows. These rolling hills of grain fields get broken by gashes cut in by seasonal creek beds. The road follows nature’s contours with minimal engineering.

This area offers a beautiful canvas for some wonderful cloud scapes.

There are trip planners on the Internet leading to ghost towns. In Oregon, agriculture and mining are featured as the driving forces in the creation of these markers to progress and shifts in the state’s economy. A large number of these spots are in Central Oregon.

Dufer, 20 minutes south of The Dalles, was once at the heart of an apple growing mecca.

Our research suggested this as a good area for photographic explorations. Aging wooden structures holding granaries and mills, as well as rural schools dot the area.

We toured roads named for mills, markets and local farms, as well as the slightly racist “Japanese Hollow” where we found an abandoned schoolhouse in a cow pasture.

Turning up fifteen mile road, which is more like sixteen miles up OR 197 from it’s junction with I-84, we were treated to postcard views of Mt Hood. The focus of this leg was to locate the old general store in the town of Friend. Unfortunately, it was closed to outsiders. I guess there was no friendliness to be found in Friend.

We climbed up the lower eastern foothills of the Cascades and onto the Warm Springs Reservation. Here we caught more great snow capped images and a well weathered stock corral before dropping back down into the Deschutes River gorge and reconnecting with Highway 97 and the trip home.