This late winter dump of snow put a stop to regular day trips. However, the La Pine Library has passes to local attractions so you don’t have to pay the entrance fee…cool.
Started in the early 80’s, the High Desert Museum serves as an educational center to “… explore the historic and contemporary relationship between people and landscape.”
The permanent exhibits are fine (but ‘been there, done that). So, we take a stroll by the Hollen Atrium to see the porcupine and bobcat. Then we head into the Desertarium, where the desert tortoise and burrowing owls reside. Depending on the time of day, there are also wildlife demonstrations, though we seem to keep missing the river otter feeding. That’s a priority for our next visit.
Once we’ve checked in on the critters, we can spend some time with the “changing exhibit.” This week they just installed ‘The Beauty of Wild Things: Charcoal drawings by April Coppini.” Coppini is a Portland based artist that does exceptional gestural charcoal on paper. We really like the bumble bee series.
It’s called a museum, but they have more than a dozen sites along a meandering system of trails that take you into the environment. The Raptors presentation, Otter exhibit and Birds of Prey center are all really interesting, even encased in a layer of snow.
That porcupine is as cute as ever…