GREETINGS FROM BEND,
Oregon (OR), USA
Thankfully today we changed from Mountain Daylight Time back to Pacific Daylight Time as the extra hour now gave us 25 hours of activities to fit into 24 hours – and we needed it !
Boise ID to Bend OR
Our journey today started and finished on 4 lane highways but everything in between was quite a contrast. Boise is a fairly spreadout city – not particularly large as even with the adjoining Nampa area the total population is less than 1 million people. And beyond the built up area it returns to farming land again quickly.
The interstate, I-84, took us to the border with Oregon, where we turned more westerly.
Hills, scrub and farms combined
The landscape of the drive changed from scrubland – passing through a section called the Eastern desert, to farming land, to parched and burnt hills, to national forest and to prehistoric landscape – and each replacing another as quickly as they had appeared.
Early on in the day as we entered Oregon, I had memories – or nightmares – bought back as we travelled behind a truck carrying crates of onions. As a teenager I had gone to Griffith at the beginning of Year 11 with a mate from school to stay at his aunt’s during the school holidays and, hopefully, earn some money.
The road goes on and on – into the smokey haze
Our first job had been picking onions. The onions had been ploughed to the surface and we had to pick them up, with shears clip the roots and heads and put the onions in these crates. The going rate was $9 per crate. We worked in the January heat all day from about 7am till 4pm and finished with blistered hands from using the shears all day and the princely sum of $4.50 each – yes it took we novices all day to fill 1 crate !
Fires burning in the hills
Thankfully the scenery changed and that thought disappeared ! A large section of the road we used today is known as the Journey Through Time Scenic Byway. A lot of the little settlements we passed through had been pioneering towns as the Oregon Trail opened up the west to early settlers. These days they are quite a mixture – some are ramshackle at best, others have thrived as modernised “western towns” and others are almost ghost towns. The houses and homesteads are a similar range – some have every piece of equipment ever used dating back to the 1800’s in varying degrees of decay (even the newer stuff !) and the houses made of any old bit of material that came to hand at the time. Others are immaculate – and almost mansions – and all their equipment shining as if new.
Picture Gorge – access to the John Day
Fossil Beds National Monument
At the other end of the spectrum, the area is one of the worlds foremost areas of preserved evolutionary change dating back as far as 44 million years and as recent as 5 million years. It is still unearthing fossils with ongoing research.
We also had significant evidence today of the fires which have been burning throughout Oregon. The skies were full of smoke haze and we could see areas in the distant hills where smoke was still rising. In other areas, there were miles and miles of burnt out scrubland.
The Blue Basin
Our major stops for the day were 2 sections of the John Day Fossil Beds. One was called the Blue Basin where the hills are a greeny blue colour of the claystone. This area has produced a large number of fossils as the claystone erodes.
The other area was called the Painted Hills, where the different periods of volcanic activity have left stripes of different colour in the landscape. It was very hot when we were there but we did a couple of the shorter trails.
The Painted Hills
Once we reached Bend, we found our hotel which is located in an area called the Old Mill. It was an old timber mill which played a significant part in the growth of Bend as a town and city. It has now been revitalised and transformed into a shopping and restaurant area and as it sits right on the river is a very attractive area. Our hotel is just over the river – only a short walk. As we drove over the river on the way in, we could see it was brimming with people sitting in rafts, rubber floats, canoes, stand up boards and pretty much anything that would float. We asked the guy at reception if it was some sort of event and he said it was just a normal activity when the weather was good !
Old Mill District
So for dinner we walked across the bridge to a seafood restaurant called Anthony’s. We had a table outside with a view across the river to the mountains and setting sun. We had a lovely seafood dip (warm) for starters then both had fish from the day’s specials.
As we walked back to the hotel we had an encounter with a group of deer – almost in the carpark ! We were walking up a path with garden on each side and suddenly 3 deer rushed across the path in front of us.
As we walked up further, 3 more were tucking into the plants in the garden then eventually headed off to join the other 3 as we went past . We have definitely had our share of wildlife sightings and experiences on this trip !