Tag: Geology

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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.

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Time-Sculpted Landscapes

Rabbit Bush on plateau of Cove Palisades with storm clouds to the northeast.

While these posts get a lot of fishing stories, another major draw for our excursions involves geology.

Rimrock basalt lines the top of canyon walls.

Evidence of caldera and volcanic activity pokes up through the Central Oregon landscape everywhere. This week’s post highlights one of these areas.

Gusting winds made hiking the trail overlooking the rocks a bit hazardous.

The Metolius Balancing Rocks are the remnants of activity a millennia ago. They remained in near obscurity until a wildfire burned through the western edge of Cove Palisades State Park.

A volcanic eruption created spires, then another added a top layer of denser material.

Over the centuries the lower portions of these spires eroded out from under the harder sedimentary top layer, leaving a unique geographical structure.

You can still see evidence of wildfire that tore through the area in 2002.
The threat of rain followed us most of the day.

Once the wildfire exposed the area long protected by the park service, a short loop trail was added, as well as some informational signage. My guess it was in hopes that vandals would be dissuaded from wreaking havoc on the site.

Another draw for a stop at this overlook is the magnificent view of the Metolius River and Mt Washington offered from a small parking area at the trail head.

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Fossils, rocks and turkeys

Being retired we find time to embrace certain concepts or more like Rules to Live By. They help us focus on what’s really important and among them are:

    • Fun will be had by all
    • Live life like my dog 
    • Housework never supersedes fun

However, today we plan to use the Never Go Back The Same Way We Came rule. After a wonderful morning and lunch at Spring Basin Wilderness, we continue our exploration of the area.

We head along a scenic drive to explore the prehistoric past of Oregon and stop at the Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds. It is located 18 miles west of the town of Fossil, Oregon.

The Palisades are the most prominent landform and are ancient mudflows.

The trailhead is located along Highway 218. The Trail of Fossils (¼ mile loop) is the only trail in the park where visitors can easily see fossils in the rocks. Large boulders strewn below the Palisades contain dozens of visible plant fossils. We glimpse fossilized plants along the cliff walls as well … when suddenly we hear a strange “gobble” sound. I kid you not! We grab the binoculars and sure enough it’s a flock of wild turkeys. What a perfect end to a perfect day.

Sure, we get home late. But luckily we’ve put into practice our Always have dinner ready and waiting after a long day on the road rule.  On the menu, Minestrone Soup with toasted baguette. Yeah … these are rules we can live by.

 

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Geological structures

In Central Oregon you are at the mercy of winter’s weather whims.

Sun-filled days are broken up with snowfall which makes road trips unpleasant. Right now we are in the middle of a February snow-dump and have spent the last week close to home. When the roads, as well as the sky cleared, we were ready for an excursion.

East of La Pine, about 40 miles on the Fremont Highway (State Route 31), is according to our trusty Oregon Roadside Geology book,  a “garden of volcanic oddities.” Big Hole, Hole-in-the-Ground, The Devils Garden and Fort Rock were all formed about 13 thousand years ago in and along an ice-age lake that became Silver and Summer lakes. Basically, at the same time Mt Mazama was making Crater Lake.

Geological spectacles are usually enough to pique our interest, but just a few weeks ago we discovered that Fort Rock State Park was also a destination for birders.  In particular, you’ll find falcons and eagles using the unique structures of Fort Rock to launch hunting missions across the prairie and farm fields to the east.

 

The state park at it’s northwestern edge is the starting point for a series of trails that take you into the ring of volcanic ash and around it’s outer perimeter.

This scouting mission didn’t align with optimal birding times, but we saw a couple of bald eagles and a few falcons soaring in and around the rock faces.

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Roadside geology


 
It’s a bit of an understatement to say Central Oregon has a unique geological history. Nearly every hillside and canyon in the region tells a story, exposing a variety of volcanic eras. According to “Roadside Geology of Oregon,” we live on the volcanic plateau. Walking ancient lava flows is so cool!

Northwest of Bend, a man-made lake occupies a space made up of igneous rock, once cut into by three rivers. This is where the Metolius  and Crooked join the Deschutes river. The waters of Billy Chinook draw hundreds of power boaters from May to November, however in the winter months, the canyon walls are quieter and we can indulge our geological interests in relative peace.


 
Mountain View Drive, a few miles off Highway 97 and northwest of Culver is a good starting point.  From it’s many overlook pullouts, you get a “whole picture view” of the plateau and canyon walls.

Next it’s down to the floor and the Crooked River Day Use area.  The deserted boat ramp is a nice place to stop for some lunch by the lake. The sun has made it to this level by noon and is warming huge boulders that serve as picnic site buffers.

Drive up the Crooked river branch and you are able to see textbook examples of columnar basalt that lava flows laid down millennia ago. Cross over the lake and stop to see one of the more recent rock formations in the area, a Petroglyph Rock.

We are now on the Metolius River branch and climb out of one canyon, across a flat, and drop into Fly Creek, where at USFS road 1170, the pavement ends.   A short distance farther and you pull into a turnout on the right. Down the gravel path is the Balanced Rocks, another geological oddity with Lake Billy Chinook and the snow covered peak of Mt Jefferson in the background.