Kam Wah Chung, Baker City

Today is a history day. First stop at Kam Wah Chung, a State Heritage Site. This was a home, store, Chinese medicine shop all in one small building. Interesting view into the lives of a couple early immigrants who, unusually, ended up doing very well in both the Chinese and the white communities.

Then stopped at Sumpter Valley Dredge, the largest gold mining dredge in the country (we didn't know there was such a thing). That's the second photo.

And finally, on to Baker City for the night--but with enough time to visit the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Very interesting. Thanks to the very dry climate, you can still see wheel ruts from the wagons. What a horrible trip!

Good beer and dinner at another one of those Oregon microbreweries: we spilt fish tacos and a spicy chicken Caesar salad, plus stout for Henry and a red ale fort me. Good thing we can walk home...

John Day Fossil Beds, Sheep's Rock Unit

The Sheep's Rock Unit is all about the fossils, geology and some history. Spectacular, and quite different from the Painted Hills. Different mineral content, but also formed at different times by a free million years.

There's also an old ranch on the property. unfortunately the house, now a museum, was closed but the orchard provided a few windfall apricots (with permission from a ranger). Very hot, around 100 degrees, but dry so not impossible.

Dinner at a local cafe. Met a couple of local high school teachers. There are only 28 students in the school, so though the main person doing the talking is really a history teacher, he has to teach some of everything. Fun conversation and very good food: a burger from local grass- fed beef and an excellent salad. Strawberry rhubarb pie came home with us for dessert.

Bend, Painted Hills

Stopped at Pilot Butte before leaving town to admire the important volcanoes (Mt. Bachelor and The Three Sisters) in Bend one more time.

Then headed for the Painted Hills Unit of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Spectacular and amazing. Each different color of the, clay really, is not only different mineral content but also from a different era, starting something like 55 million years ago. Tomorrow we'll learn more...

Bend

Started with a nice hike along the Described river. Then headed for The Deschute brewery for some beer and lunch/dinner. After some discussion, and tasting, Henry chose their anniversary porter. I went for a European style bitter, which wasn't bitter at all. Yummy burger and fish and chips made an excellent meal. That plus the by then 90 degrees sent us home for a nap.

Magic night canoe trip tonight on Sparks Lake in the Cascades, surrounded by Mt. Bachelor and The Three Sisters. Stars were amazing: you could see so many more when there's no other light, including the Milky Way.

Don't know where the underlines are coming from, and no obvious way to fix--sorry.

High Desert Museum, Bend

On to Bend this morning. Spent the day at the super High Desert Museum. Plants, animals, history, and art! The horse sculpture is made of barbed wire. The building is a sawmill from 1904. No sawyers around, though, just us two Sawyers. Best predatory bird flight demo we've ever seen. A peregrine falcon flew right between Henry and me. We could feel the air movement from her wings.  The owl has an injured wing, so was there to admire but couldn't fly.

Dinner was outstanding northern Thai food at The Wild Rose. E thought we'd go to one of the gazillion breweries here after dinner, but wimped out and headed home instead.

Crater Lake, day 2

Back to Crater Lake today. First stopped at a fish hatchery and watched a raptor carry off a rather large fish right in front of us. It was so quick and startling didn't have time to even think about what kind of raptor. Then stopped to look at the canyon being carved be the Annie Creek. The walls contain fossilized fumaroles, where the hot gasses melted the rock, leaving hollow tube that are harder than the surrounding rocks. Erosion then leaves these pillars/pinnacles.

Then a lovely walk through old growth forest of Mountain Hemlock and Shasta Red Fir. Finally, back to the lake, which was just as beautiful today. Lunch/dinner at the historic Crater Lake Lodge. We split pan fried trout (seemed appropriate after the hatchery) and a lovely salad with "Oregonzola" crumbles.

Crater Lake

Spent the day at Crater Lake. It's as beautiful as everyone says. The blue is really an amazing color. As you can see, there's still some snow!

Dinner with our airBnB host. He gathers wild mushrooms, so fixed pasta with a marinara sauce with porcini mushrooms that he had gathered. Can't remember the English/local name at the moment.. no matter what you call it, it was certainly yummy. Fun evening!

Tule Lake Wildlife Refuge

Spectacular view of Mt. Shasta on the way from our cabin to the wildlife refuge, as you can tell from the photo (I hope). Spent several hours at the refuge, way more than we expected. Beautiful marshes, and saw ibis, white pelicans, egrets, many very unhappy redwing blackbirds (couldn't persuade them were really weren't interested in their nests. Also saw a newly fledged red tailed hawk, thanks to a couple with a good scope.

Then headed north. Stopped at the Favell museum in Klamath Falls. A somewhat odd collection of Native American (from all over) and art and artifacts and some general "western art". It started from a private collection, so reflects personal interest rather than some organizational intent.

Now settled in our airbnb. It's a nice cabin and comes complete with eggs from the chickens who were eager to eat the insects smushed on the front of the car. Our host gathers wild mushrooms as one of several businesses. Current plan of joint dinner tomorrow, and it will definitely involve mushrooms. Yum--should be perfect after a day at Crater Lake, which apparently still has so much snow the rim road is only partly open.

Lava Beds National Monument

Started the day with a presentation on scat. Then spent the rest day exploring the monument, which mostly meant climbing over, under and through lava. Also learned a bit about the Modoc war and got s preview of the Tule Lake Wildlife Refuge, which we plan to visit tomorrow. It's a beautiful, though stark, place.

Lava Beds National Monument

McCarthur-Burney Falls. Lava Beds

Before we even got to the falls, we saw a bald eagle, and then 2 osprey nests complete with baby ospreys! The falls themselves are gorgeous.

Got to Lava Beds National Monument in time for a ranger talk about the history of the area, and to go into two of the lava tubes/caves. Interesting--and the first time we've been somewhere that you can just go explore caves on your own. We'll go to more tomorrow--easy ones as we don't feel quite up to crawling and duck-walking.

No pictures where I can get them onto the blog today. Not sure what happened as I thought I'd taken one out two. Oh well.

First day

On our way! Spectacular views of Mt. Shasta as we approached Redding. completely snow-covered.

Stopped in Redding to see the Sundial Bridge. Very cool. It's a "cantilever spar cable-stayed" design. Doesn't touch the water to protect the salmon spawning ground beneath. We were too late in the afternoon to see the sundial in action.

Then on to Burney for the night.

Getting Ready

We leave tomorrow!  Plan is approximately a month-long road trip to Oregon (mostly). We've never been to Crater Lake, Columbia River Gorge or a bunch of other interesting-sounding in places. It's time to fix that. The plan is to keep this blog/trip diary for ourselves and any of our friends who want to follow our adventures.

Meanwhile, on with the packing and other stuff to get ready. It's easier to pack for an overseas trip as that removes all possibility of overpacking. Still we've already removed the extra seats from the van and put the mattress topper back there, so we're prepared for naps.