The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

September 10 to 12 Baker City to Wallowa Lake State Park

Currently in Rocky Point, Oregon, partly cloudy at 55 degrees F, predicted high of 64F

Don’t forget to click on the photos if you want a bigger version

Sometimes when we are traveling, our tendency is to go fairly long distances between locations. This time, however, we took our own sweet time getting from place to place, and then settled in to really enjoy the countryside. After the morning in Baker City, we thought it might be fun to wander off on some back roads instead of sticking to the Interstate. We could see the curvy road ambling northeast rising on the southern foothills of the Wallowa Mountains.

How bad could it be anyway?! Sure, the road was narrow, there were curves, but no real spooky drop-offs like the ones back in John Day Country, and we were rewarded with beautiful vistas of the Wallowas and the Eagle Cap Wilderness shining in the late summer sunlight.

It is amazing to me how many tiny little towns are scattered across this part of Oregon. Of course I knew of Baker City, La Grande, Pendleton, Joseph, and Enterprise. I do actually live in this state. But I had never heard of Cove, or Union, or Medical Springs, and as we continued our travels for the rest of the trip, many little towns appeared that were just blips on the map, and a blink of the eye.

People lived in these little towns, there were city halls, and fire departments, police stations, antique stores advertising “used antiques”. Hmmm. There were old barns, and beautiful ranches, and miles and miles of open space. It was lovely to wander through the countryside and imagine what it must be like to be born and raised in places like these, or to live there now. Did these people grow up here or did they somehow choose to come to a tiny town in the far reaches of Northeastern Oregon. Lots of fodder for the imagination as I rode along, for sure.

As you can see from the map, there is really no way to get to Joseph without skirting the amazing Wallowa Mountains. Home to the Eagle Cap Wilderness, these mountains are sometimes called the “Little Alps of Oregon” with good reason. Formed dominantly from granite from the Wallowa Batholith, the peaks are glaciated and dotted more than 50 apline glacial lakes. They reminded me a bit of the Sierras, only a bit more open like the Big Horns. The Wallowas are one of the premier backpacking destinations in Oregon, not nearly so well known as the Cascades with their volcanoes, but much more enticing to me.

The meandering route gave us just a taste of what was to come in the far corner of our home state. Somehow I was reminded a lot more of the Idaho I lived in for more than 30 years than the Oregon that is now my home. Everything felt so familiar, the forests even smelled different, familiar somehow. I recognized the plants, the geology, all of it was like coming home somehow.

Just like a lot of other folks, I thought, “I could easily live in this place”. The winters are long, the population of Wallowa County is a mere 7,500 or so, and shopping is far away in La Grande or Pendleton. But the towns are lovely, well cared for, the vistas are magnificent, the land open and spacious. Beautiful.

When we arrived at the Wallowa lake State Park in early afternoon, we were a day early for our reservation, but in spite of the crowded park, there was a site open for us until our space was ready the next day. We originally planned to stay longer in Baker City, but continuing to the lake and taking our chances for a spot was a good plan. When we first planned this trip, I didn’t think we would need reservations, but checking the State Park website was a good hunch, since we just barely snagged a spot for the four nights we wanted to stay.

Wallowa Lake is home to one of the best examples of glacial topography in the West, and images of the huge lateral moraines are used often in textbooks on geology and geomorphology. The lake is deep and blue and incredibly clear. Often the mountains still have a bit of snow in late summer, but none was left this year, a low snow year for the entire area. The lake was really quite low as well, surprising since it is a natural lake and not a reservoir, but I guess drought is drought, and lake levels will go down.

After settling into our one night spot, we took the Tracker for a visit to the Forest Service Information Center on the edge of the little town of Joseph. The woman at the desk was incredibly helpful, and there were a ton of brochures about the area. She suggested we try the Lostine Creek Scenic Route, maybe hike up Hurricane Creek, or go check out the Zumwalt Prairie to look for wildlife. All good ideas, but we settled on Lostine Creek, a deep glacially cut valley that climbed back into the Eagle Cap Wilderness.

We hoped for some close-up views of the mountains, but the creek is so deep in the canyon that it is hard to see much without actually doing some of the 12 mile hikes into the back country that boast elevation rises of 3 to 5 thousand feet. Maybe not today. Let’s go back to the campground and check out the local nature trail and let Abby swim in the lake.

It was good to be settled in and to know that we had at least one day of doing not much of anything. Mo had surprised me with the idea of a special birthday treat, and in a couple of days we were going to drive the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway to Hells Canyon Dam and a big adventure on the Snake River in the wild and scenic part of Hells Canyon.

After a great sleep, we took our time enjoying the campground, went to town to do some laundry and actually check in on the internet for a bit, and were back in camp in time to move to our more permanent site for the next few days. This is a very popular park, even in late September, and on this Wednesday morning as we tucked into a rather short space, I was again really glad I had made reservations the previous month before everything was completely gone.

As I picked up the new tag for the new site number, I overheard a very sad RV driver complaining to the park ranger in the kiosk, “I NEVER make reservations this time of year! What do you mean there is NOTHING?!” Blue lake, big mountains, cute town….a very popular place.

Finally in late afternoon we wet out on the lake in the kayaks to enjoy that gorgeous clear water. The mountains are so high that the sun disappears fairly quickly on the tucked away part of the lake, but it was still beautiful. There are lakeside homes all along the western shore, most of them very big and spendy looking, and only a few of them with folks hanging around on the decks and porches. Even so, the lake was reasonably quiet, and the kayak time was nice.

We never did see a lot of birds around. I suppose the shoreline is too rocky, the lake is too low, and the water too clear for bird food in any quantity. As lovely as the lake was, and even with that gorgeous clear water, I think I would rather meander around in an estuary somewhere that has a bit more complexity. Don’t get me wrong, it was a beautiful kayak and it felt great to finally get our boats out on the water. We originally planned to try doing some kayaking on the John Day River, but the drought wasn’t about to let that happen. I hate it when we haul the boats for miles and miles and never get them on the water!

Mo had packed up a good amount of wood for the trip, so we had another huge campfire after supper and enjoyed all the activity of a very busy campground with kids on bikes, lots of dogs (well behave and leashed) and giving Jeremy a chance to play around outside unhindered. We even put up the chili pepper lights on the MoHo awning, something we haven’t done in a very long time. There are some more photos of the state park linked here

September 8 to 10 John Day to Baker City

Currently we are back In Rocky Point, Oregon. Cloudy and light rain, 43 degrees F

Sometimes I can just sit down at the computer, open up the photos of our travels, and all the memories come flooding back. It is easy to write and remember what we have seen and done. Other times I look at the photos, I remember, but writing about it just doesn’t quite come as easily. Makes me glad I made the effort to write about our days in John Day Fossil Beds while they were happening.

Our original plan this summer season was to stay home, to enjoy our own state, and we did just that. There are parts of Oregon that are very familiar to me. The corridor north and south along 97, the corridor along I-5, the road over 140 to Medford, the roads east to the desert. I have traveled along Highway 26 to Idaho in the past, but never had the time to really linger and explore. This month we took that time and it paid off with beautiful back roads, amazing vistas, and good memories.

Donna over at Travels in Therapy mentioned Clyde Holiday State Park, and we changed our original plans to overnight at the fairgrounds in John Day in favor of this lovely patch of green along the John Day River. I have been trying to read and catch up on blogs, and have been surprised at the number of people traveling in this area, often just a day or two apart from us. Funny how each of us sees something different, or writes about it differently, but many of the photos are similar.

It was a short respite in the two week trip where we actually had telephone and internet service, giving me time to catch up with phone calls and check on bank accounts. I was surprised at how the internet, email, telephone messages, all seemed so necessary and yet so intrusive. I love being connected, but it definitely can be stressful sometimes. Almost as stressful as not being connected. Still it was wonderful to hear my daughter’s (plural daughters) voice and to get missed phone messages from my son and other friends.

Clyde Holiday State Park is right along the highway, just a few miles west of John Day. It is a bit like camping in a large city park, with grass and a nice river walkway, and a place to build a campfire.

There are teepees for rent that were locked up, but looked as though they would be quite cozy. It was a busy park, and without a reservation, we were glad to arrive around 2 in the afternoon after traveling south from Fossil. We got a nice back-in spot, and settled in for the evening after driving in to the town of John Day. We were in the midst of the Cycle Oregon event, with hundreds of cyclists camped for the night in the fairgrounds. It was definitely a place where the bicyclists had the run of the place, and we had to be especially careful driving around town.

The next morning we ambled a very short distance east along highway 26, and then highway 7 toward Baker City. On the way we stopped at Bates State Park, and wandered through the brand new park built to commemorate the tiny logging town that once existed there. Visiting with the camp host was a treat, and there were only 2 rigs in the entire park. The trees are young, there is no internet access (he told us we could drive a few miles to milepost 6 to get a phone signal). He said his busiest weekends might have up to 7 rigs in the park. We enjoyed his down home conversation, and loved his description of camp hosting in such a quiet park.

The Union Creek Forest Service campground seemed much more inviting even without hook-ups than camping in a city RV park jammed up against the interstate 84. We wanted to spend plenty of time at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, and still have plenty of time to explore Baker City, touted as an amazing place to visit by all the Travel Oregon booklets we had been collecting. 9-09-2013 Sumpter Dredge

Not far west of our evening destination, however, was a turn-off to the historic town of Sumpter and the Sumpter Valley Dredge. As we approached the old gold mining town, the huge piles of tailings left behind by the dredge were evident all along the drainageway. I was familiar with dredge gold mining from other areas in the Idaho mountains, and have tried to map soils on landscapes forever altered by hydraulic mining in California. But I had never actually seen a dredge or understood how they work. If you are interested in the actual mechanical workings of the dredge and its history, click here.

This huge dredge was used in the Sumpter Valley from 1935 to 1954. It was interesting that during this time there was a second gold rush to the area, and it lasted until the price of gold again went too low to make it profitable. I appreciated the Oregon State Park volunteer that offered incredibly detailed information about the dredge, its operation, and back stories of the people who lived in Sumpter and ran the dredge. The little museum room at the state park had a nostalgic photo album of the reunions of original dredge workers over the last decade.

When we arrived at the park, the lot was almost completely empty, but as we started to leave, some kind of amazing parade of vintage cars entered town and turned into the park. I think there must have been 50 to 100 cars, all shiny and perfect, and they all poured into the lot as we were leaving so we got some nice close up looks at them. Sure did look like those folks were having a great time in their old cars.

For more photos of the Dredge and Sumpter click here

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We arrived at the campground, just a few more miles down the road, opened up the Fantastic Fan for Jeremy, and drove the short 20 miles into Baker City. Just 5 miles east from town is the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. The building sits high on a hill, with a magnificent view of the Blue Mountains to the west and basin and range country to the east. It was hot when we got there, even though it was late afternoon, so Mo walked around with Abby while I explored the center. Of course no dogs are allowed inside, and the trails, while open to dogs, were made of hot asphalt, not good for doggie paws.

I enjoyed an hour in the various exhibits, then walked Abby while Mo took a turn. When she came out, we decided that it really was too hot to try to hike down to the Oregon Trail wagon ruts, but from the high point you could see the scars in the desert where thousands of people fled their lives in the east for the Promised Land of Oregon.

I have no idea why but somehow the stories were depressing instead of inspirational to me. I felt the pain, the sadness, the death and loneliness of the trail. There was a special exhibit of narrated stories of individuals traveling that was especially touching. I could see young women, pregnant or with young children, following their husbands wild dreams into new territory. They left behind friends, family, and familiarity and in most cases never saw their loved ones again.

Made me think of how much I love to travel, and yet how much I love to be home, how much I love to be able to talk to my kids, or even get a text or a facebook post from them.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center

It was a wonderful exhibit, but definitely left me feeling somewhat pensive. I was glad when we returned to our hot, dry, very open and very empty campground to all the comforts of our “covered wagon”. Good food, water, a toilet, a shower, lights, shelter, all taken completely for granted most of the time, but not on this night. As I fell asleep I was still haunted by the stories of the trail. More photos of the Interpretive Center are here.

The next morning we continued east to Baker City, leaving late enough to be leisurely, and yet early enough to explore what we thought might be an area that would require several hours if not an entire day. Our first stop was the visitor center, which was closed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Great. We finally found a sign outside where there were a few brochures, and picked up the Walking Tour Guide. Whew! At least we could see some of the famous historic buildings and have a clue what they were about.

We walked the town, a bit disappointed with the guide that didn’t include even half of the buildings that we could see with Historic Register signs on them. The galleries were a bit disappointing as well, with one of them actually lit with fluorescent lights, and many of them not even open. Geez, it is only September! The nicest parts of town were the beautiful Geiser Grand Hotel, although we were only allowed in the main part of the lobby as unregistered guests. We also were impressed with the Carnegie Library, now a city art center that seemed full of life and activity. 9-10-2103 Historic Baker City

Baker City was once the Queen City of the Mines and was considered a cultural oasis in the emptiness of Eastern Oregon. There were restaurants, fine hotels, orchestras and opera, and beautiful elaborate homes. By 1900, the population was nearly 7,000 people, more than either Boise or Spokane at the time. We enjoyed parts of Baker City, but didn’t find a lot to keep us there more than a couple of hours. I would say that the Chamber of Commerce has done a great job of promoting their town, they got us to go there, but we still didn’t spend any money.

Teaser: Day in Hell

We have been in Joseph, Oregon, at the Wallowa Lake State Park for several days now. No internet to speak of, even with five bars on the Verizon MiFi. Guess I am in an extended network. Probably won’t get anything updated for the next several days, but wanted to at least keep track of where we are for family and friends.

Trying for one photo….we will see what happens

Shortcuts are fun

September 7 Fossil Oregon Sunny day in the mid 80’s F

Don’t you just love shortcuts? Especially the ones you try to navigate sight unseen because the maps look good. Never mind any kind of GPS navigator, I am sure that wouldn’t work out here in the fossil no man’s land. Phones don’t work, why would garmin girl have a clue?!

I perused the paper maps a lot, including our Oregon Gazetteer before trying to take a short cut down to the Painted Hills Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds in the Tracker. After our little conversation with a local rancher the other day, I knew that roads on the map may not really be there, but he did say that the road south went through to the unit so we decided to give Cottonwood Creek a try.

Nope. After driving a considerable distance on the gravel road, we found to our dismay that the road south was gated and signed as PRIVATE. It didn’t look that great either, so we rerouted back to Highway 19 and started south again on another “short-cut” via the narrow, unlined, but thankfully paved Rowe Creek Road.

The short cut really was a good way to get down south, with only 38 miles from the turn to the park, but the curvy dirt road that went west from the little burg of Twickenham, on the John Day River, to connect with the graveled Bridge Creek Road was a hair raiser. Even in the Tracker! Big ranch trucks barreling around the corners seemed to think it was a one way road and a couple of times I thought we were going to get bumped right off into the canyon.

Once we arrived at the park, though, it was all worth it, and the beautiful soft green grass and shady picnic tables were a nice place to rest in the warm sunshine before we tackled the roads and trails in the Painted Hills Unit.

Again, there was great signage explaining the different formations and the kinds of fossils found in each one. Maybe by the time we are through visiting here I will actually remember which is which.

There are four trails in the area that are listed, and one more short trail that is yet to get published on the park maps. Each one is only 1/4 mile except for the Carrol Rim Trail which is a short, steep 1.5 mile round trip. We took our time visiting each little trail, trying to make it all last until the late afternoon light would give us photos that wouldn’t be completely washed out in the bright daylight.

The Leaf Hill trail is less than spectacular, but the story of Leaf Hill is incredible. The first major fossil find in the area was here, with a paleontologist gleaning more than 20,000 different fossils from just 93 cubic yards of excavated shale.

West of the Leaf Hill trail is another short trail around Red Hill. It was getting hotter and brighter, and I wished that we had waited until later in the day to come south to this area.

About a mile back on the gravel road, was a turn off to another tiny trail around the Painted Cove. There a boardwalk has been constructed to allow access to the brilliant clay hills without damaging them. I really appreciated the great signage explaining the geology of the area.

Another mile back and we returned again to the Overlook Trail, which still appeared much too bright and flat to make the 1/2 mile walk worth it. Instead, across the way was the trailhead for the Carrol Rim Trail.

Hot and bright or not, it was time to climb. We figured we could hang around on the rim and take our time until the sun slanted a bit more so that I could get some photos of the amazing colors of the painted hills.

Don’t laugh at my hiking gear. I forgot to put my hiking Keen sandals in the Tracker this morning, so while I had my good walking sticks, my hiking for the day was accomplished in these rather amazing Oofos. No slipping and sliding at all. They worked great. Mo and I always laugh at the teenagers we see hiking in flip flops. So now I appear to be just as smart as those teenagers!

The hike was hot, but once around the rim the winds picked up and the breezes cooled us off. We had the trail and summit completely to ourselves. It was gorgeous. We sat around on the lovely juniper benches, a great amenity at most of the trails in the park, and watched the light change. Just a little, but it was changing.

By the time we got back down to the first overlook bench on the trail, it was nearly 6pm, and still the light was high and bright. I guess I just wasn’t committed enough to wait until sunset. That would have meant we got home after dark, and nope. Not worth it this time.

What I did discover, however, is that the view from the Carrol Rim Trail is much more interesting at this time of year than the view from the more popular Overlook Trail. On the Rim, we were at the right angle to at least get a bit of light and shadow on the beautifully eroded soft clay hills, but from the Overlook trail you couldn’t even see any ridges at all as the light was directly on the hills and visually flattened out the ridges completely.

I loved our travels through John Day Fossil Beds, I loved learning the formations, and trying to identify them as we crossed the landscape, I loved the light, the color, all of it. I loved the little town of Fossil, and the folks in the Café that actually let me enjoy a bit of an internet connection for the cost of a cup of coffee. In times past, as I have traveled along Highway 26 I always wanted to understand this area more deeply, and now I do.

Tomorrow: To Clyde Holiday State Park, and who was John Day anyway?

Driving in Circles

September 6 Fossil, Oregon Overcast and in the 70’s

The John Day Fossil Beds National Monument is an amazing treasure in Oregon. It is made up of 3 different units that are located along sections of Highway 26, and Highway 19 west of the town of John Day. We traveled through John Day back in 2008 via Highway 26. Not far from town is the lovely Clyde Holiday State Park, touted as a jumping off point for visiting the Fossil Beds, as is the town of John Day itself.

Instead, I picked Fossil as our home base for exploring the area, with thoughts of possibly staying at the Spray wayside, or even in John Day for the latter part of the stay. No matter how we planned various unit explorations, we still had to do several backtracks, and some repeat drives. Maybe the map will help explain it. As closely as I can estimate, we drove more than 375 miles to see all three sections of the park from our site in Fossil. I don’t think we could have managed it with any fewer miles from any other location. The green lined blocks on the map are the different units of the John Day Fossil Beds. Most folks traveling along Highway 26 will take a short trip up to the visitor center and the Sheeprock Unit, but it takes a bit of effort to get to the other sections.

The trip today to the Sheeprock Unit took us through Spray, where we checked out the possible camping choice and came up with a resounding NO! The river is very low, the campground is open and has no hookups, and for $12 doesn’t offer much in the way of amenities. I think it would be a good spot to get on the river if there happened to be water there, but at the moment not so much.

Continuing along toward Kimberley and then south toward the first section of the Sheeprock Unit, the Foree Area, was lovely, in spite of the overcast skies. At least it wasn’t raining.

There are only two hikes in Foree, both of them only 1/4 mile long, but they are well signed, and one of them is even wheelchair accessible. we looked into our first example of the Turtle Cove formation, somewhat subdued by the gray light, and still found it amazing. One of the more delightful aspects of hiking in the John Day Fossil Beds is that we can take Abby on all the trails. It is a dog friendly place, hard to find in any kind of national park or monument.

A few miles south along the river we came to the Blue Basin Area of the Sheeprock Unit, where the rain clouds didn’t have any downpours planned for us and decided that the 3 1/2 mile Overlook trail would be much more fun than just walking into the short Island in Time trail.

The first part of the trail is not too steep, and there was fresh elk scat still steaming. Never did see the elk, but we did see lots of evidence of many different kinds of critters in the area. Looking back along the trail, I was surprised to see just how much elevation we had gained. The trail was steep and narrow, but not incredibly difficult. The newly constructed boardwalk across some of the more unstable portions of the trail was great.

Once at the summit overlook the skies lightened just enough to make things interesting. The view below was magnificent, and the trail continued along the contours for another mile or so before making a very steep descent via switchbacks to the valley below.

Knees started arguing not too long before the bottom, and I’m glad I had my walking sticks along at least. It was a great hike, and the only one around with any kind of distance or effort involved.

Continuing south along the John Day River, we arrived at the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center which also serves as the information center for the park. I loved it! There is a large lab with a window that gives you the chance to see the grad students at work painstakingly cleaning fossils. There is extensive information on the process of fossil collection and documentation, and of course there are incredible exhibits.

The fossils at the John Day Fossil Beds encompass the entire range of existence of mammals, 40 to 50 million years, with more than 2,000 species found in the park. I was enthralled with the magnificent murals depicting theories of life during the different ages. Looking at the tiny pieces of bone, I couldn’t help but wonder at the science of paleontology. How in the world do they figure that stuff out?!?! Soil science is a piece of cake compared to that kind of detective work.

Some murals like this can seem pretty hokey, but not here. The murals were rich and textured and had “feeling”. Not sure how to explain it exactly, but I loved them.

There isn’t a lot of fuel around the area, and after visiting the Center, we drove a few more miles through Picture Gorge toward the little town of Dayville and its one lonely gas pump for Tracker fuel at $4.19 per gallon. I think there was another pump in Spray, but it looked pretty old and who knows how much gas was there. Later we discovered that there was indeed another pump in Fossil, but when we left the Center, we weren’t too sure about that one and decided to not take a chance.

It never rained on us all day long, and the sun even came out for our drive back home along the river. As the temperatures started to rise, I found myself really grateful that we didn’t have to hike in the hot sun. I guess it is a trade-off, because with the clearing skies, I hoped for a bit more light to capture the amazing colors in the Painted Hills unit tomorrow.

On the drive home near Cathedral Rock, I found this blue heron sitting high above the river. Seemed so funny to see a heron in such a desert situation.