Travel – Page 2

June 2, 2024June 5, 2024

A Different Road Taken

Looking south from refuge toward Summer Lake

The Fremont Highway will take you right by Summer Lake, so we drive that route frequently. Usually only as far as the refuge, but this week we kept on going.

Past the southern end of Summer Lake sits the tiny town of Paisley. If you stay on Highway 31 for another 30 miles you’ll run into 395 and that eventually gets you to Reno, Nevada.

Instead, we took a hard right in the middle of Paisley, heading up into the Fremont Forest along the Chewaucan River.

The initial plan was to run up the back side of Winter Ridge and come out at Silver Lake.

The Chewaucan is a beautiful little stream, we’ll definitely be back to fish. We’d explored the northern portion out to Fremont Point and got a spectacular view of Summer Lake Valley

The Chewaucan River cuts through a meadow

The canyon cut by the Chewaucan winds south through pine forests, past numerous camp sites and side creeks, eventually running into USFS 28. This road traverses the top of Winter Ridge and would, in theory, lead to Silver Lake.

I say in theory because we didn’t calculate snow pack and got turned back by blocked roadways.

Plans changed and we headed south to Dairy Creek and around Quartz Mountain intent on meeting up with State 140, Klamath Falls Highway. Foiled again by snow covered roadways, we retraced our route.

Undaunted, we’ll return to this area and complete the loop once the snowy grip of winter has been removed.

May 5, 2024May 4, 2024

Face to the Sky

Weather has taken a toll on this fence post.

It seems that weather, or the discussion of weather takes up disproportionate space on this blog. Perhaps not on par with fishing, but close.

This can be attributed to a couple of things, really. When you’re going outside the weather is part of the process. However, when that outside is on the high desert, the weather becomes the view.

Layers of storm clouds fill our view east

Since moving to Central Oregon, we’ve noticed that you can literally watch the weather. Not just the weather you’re in, but all those storm cells moving about you.

Winter still has a hold on the high country, but winter wheat has turned fields green

Get up on a butte and it’s 360 degrees of weather. We were used to small openings through groves of Doug Fir. Doesn’t really matter because that weather was typically hitting against your hat.

Drove ’97 North this week. As you finish the grade to the Cow Canyon Rest Area, just past South Junction Road, the horizon line drops to a constant lower third. The other two thirds is sky and this trip we got lucky with the weather filling all that space.

John Day River Canyon walls are covered with fresh spring growth

Half a dozen storm systems were scattered about. Directly above us white streaks of Cirrus filtered the sunshine. Blackish thunder heads trailing gray curtains of rain bumped against the Cascades.

To the East, less ominous but more abundant fronts hung behind projections of windmills and grain elevators.

After the sun sets there are additional perks to being on this side of the Cascades. It’s our impression that Central Oregon experiences more cloudless days than the place we moved from.

Regardless, the vista is wider, even at the bottom of a river canyon.

This particular April evening offered excellent star gazing. You just had to scoot chairs off the cabin porch. Constellations I’m familiar with got lost in a night sky filled with the stars not visible in an urban settling.

Constellations I’m familiar with got lost in a night sky filled with the stars not visible in an urban settling.

Looking east . . . the constellation Hercules might be there on the left.

Much like birding, identification isn’t critical to enjoying the moment. We regularly cast an eye to the night, or early morning sky. On this trip JQ braved the early morning cold and got some excellent images.

If the weather is right you can turn your face to the sky and see all kinds of wondrous views.

February 18, 2024March 15, 2024

Time Flies but Still It’s Winter

As I’m writing this post the snows have returned.

Not as deep as before, but there is still some shovel work required. We understand it’s winter and yet days under gray sky seem more numerous this year than any in the past.

We don’t lament the inevitable and in fact look forward to a seasonal shift. It has been common in Central Oregon for snowy winter days to be followed by sun and blue sky. Usually in equal amounts.

Not this year.

The week didn’t start with snow on the ground. Mid-February started with a spring-like feel.

It’s referred to as false spring, but regardless, we took advantage and headed to Maupin to spend the day on the Deschutes.

Rivers remain swollen from January’s melted snows so the fishing wasn’t great.

However, the day was sunny and temperatures pushed into the fifties. We sat up chairs on river’s edge, enjoyed the day and waited for winter to return.

We didn’t have long to wait.

December 3, 2023December 2, 2023

Layers of Color

It has been some time since we visited Painted Hills, so this week we spent a day walking trails and taking pictures, very touristy of us.

The Painted Hills Unit gets a lot of hype on the internet . . . heck, it’s listed as one of the 7 Wonders of Oregon.

We are regular visitors to all the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument ‘units’. But this is perhaps our most photographed.

The stratification that gives the “hills’ distinct layers presents differently depending on the season, as well as time of day.

Our afternoon visit was on a clear day, but there had been a week of rain.

These elements combined to offer some very photogenic views.

Even a quick swing into the Painted Hills is worth the time. As such, it gets worked into many different road trips. Frequent readers of the blog will recognize that.

Usually these excursions are short photo sorties to an overlook about a mile in from the junction of Burnt Ranch and Bear Creek roads.

We expanded that typical visit this week with some trail walks past other exibit areas.

Took a quick pass around a fenced off mound of leaf fossils.

We’re kind of leaf fossil snobs, you see we dug samples when you could still just park at Fossil High School and collect.

Spent a bit more time on the out and back trail at Red Hill.

Not as visually stunning as the overlook hills. It’s a lone mound of red capped with green.

There is a texture to the surface as well as color

It’s the surrounding landscape that gives the site an ancient look. Did manage to find a lot of photo ops.

We enjoyed ourselves to the point of skipping a trip to Tiger Brewing in Mitchell, so as to avoid night driving. Will be swinging back here again.

November 12, 2023June 4, 2024

Fall Color

Before fall gets covered with snow, we figured it was a good time to locate some color.

The high desert isn’t devoid of deciduous trees. It’s forested hills put on a nice show of seasonal change. However, the journey down into the Willamette Valley offers broader strokes of color dotting the foothills.

A majority of ‘places to see fall color in Oregon‘ are on the Cascade Range’s west side. I think it’s an elevation difference. Regardless, the west side was drenched in warm tones.

On top of that our weather apps pointed out a high probability of rain, so it became a perfect time to do a road trip.

And by road trip, I mean we’re mostly going to be driving, not stopping to say, wet a line. This type of adventure is more a historical marker, regular dog walk and picture op stopping day.

We got going early to make it through Sisters and up Santiam Pass (Hwy 20). The plan was to loop back via Willamette Pass (Hwy 58).

In between these two mountian treks was a stop at the Willamette Valley Pie Company.

Slices needed tasting and the freezer needed a restock. It would also be a good excuse to swing through Silver Falls State Park. That is, if there’s not a downpour like we experienced.

Along I-5 from Millersburg to Goshen the reds from oak trees and maples gets mixed in with yellows of cottonwood and ash.

These blobs of color frame the edges of fields still green from an ample supply of McKenzie and Willamette River water. Not ones to choose freeway miles, this is a stretch we’ve driven often.

We never grow tired of the view.