Today we began heading west with a plan to visit the Painted Hills National Monument. Oregon is running a tourism promotion touting the seven natural wonders of Oregon. The Painted Hills are one of the seven wonders, as is the Wallowa Mountains, The Columbia Gorge, the Coast, Crater Lake, Smith Rock, and Mt. Hood. We are having a debate with Ron saying that Leslie Gulch needs to be in the list, but Ton saying that of the six we have seen none of them should be dropped. Tomorrow we are going to visit Smith Rock which will need to be spectacular or Ron is going to drop it in favor of Leslie Gulch!
We arrived in the evening at Painted Hills and the light was quite nice for pictures and for viewing of the colors. We have been here many times and the colors and the formations are quite beautiful.
Painted Hills National Monument in Eastern Oregon.
Tonight we are spending the night in a Forest Service Campground on the crest of Ochoco Mountain. Nice and quiet surrounded by 100 foot plus Ponderosa Pines.
Today we headed over to Joseph. Our plan for the day was to do as much of the Hells Canyon Loop as we can. We knew part of the road was closed for construction and the detour was closed due to snow, but we knew we could make it to the Hells Canyon overlook. When we stopped to fill up the guy at the gas station got our hopes up when he told us the road was open. We had our doubts but we were going to head that way anyway. The drive up the mountain is on a Forest Service Road which has pavement about one step ahead of gravel.
As usual the scenery was spectacular and quite different than the terrain we had been driving thru earlier in the week. The Wallowa Mountains get quite a bit more moisture than the Hart and Steens Mountain, and the Owyhee’s so this had a much more of an Alpine feel with evergreens up to the tree line as opposed to the high desert feel of the other mountains. Also, the wildflowers were out which is always a treat for Ton who really loves the mountain wildflowers.
Some of the wildflowers just breaking out.
We stopped at the Hells Canyon overlook for lunch and a view of the canyon. Hells Canyon is on the border of Idaho and Oregon. The canyon was carved by the Snake River and is actually deeper than the Grand Canyon. It is not as beautiful because the sides of the gorge are not quite as steep so the views into the Canyon while spectacular do not match up with the Grand Canyon.
After lunch we headed on to the loop, and as we guessed the guy at the gas station was wrong and the road was closed just past the turnoff. We headed back to spend the night at Wallowa Lake State Park near Joseph Oregon. It is a well developed State Park on the lake which is also the grave site of Chief Joseph of the Nez Pierce Tribe.
A view of the Wallowa’s, sometimes called Oregons’ Alps. They are actually one of the western most branches of the Rockies.
Today we spent the day at the Eastern Oregon Livestock Show. It is a combination of a 4H fair, horse racing, and Rodeo. I have always wanted to visit a small town Rodeo. Union with a population of 2120 meets the small town criteria. It seemed like the whole town was out for the Rodeo and everyone looked like they were having fun.
There was quite a bit of action with horse races mixed in with the rodeo events. The rodeo is a kind of minor league for the big time rodeos you see on TV.
Note all of the cowboys wearing pink for breast cancer awareness.
After the rodeo we payed a visit to Barley Brown’s Brewery to fill up the growler. We also bought a nice half-growler to use for water, but first we will have to finish the beer that was included.
Today we started up Steens Mountain thinking that the loop to the top of the mountain was open. But when we got to the next gate above our campground we discovered it was still closed. So fortunately we headed towards the Owyhees early. It was about 150 miles to the beginning of the road that would lead us into the Owyhees. This drive is one of the most lonely we have been on. I commented yesterday about the empty roads, but todays road OR-78 is even more empty. There was about a 50 mile stretch of this road with no buildings at all, and maybe only two crossroads to indicate there may be people around.
Long, straight, empty highway.
We arrived at Succor Creek Highway about noon which is the beginning of the Succor Creek-Leslie Gulch Backcountry Byway. Calling the Succor Creek Highway is a bit optimistic, it is actually a mix of 1.5 lanes of good gravel, and 1 lane of dirt for the 50 plus miles. When you include the 30 mile roundtrip into Leslie Gulch it makes for a pretty good dirt road drive. However, it is worth every bit of the effort.
Parked on the Succor Creek “Highway’.
Ton was very excited about going to Leslie Gulch, I did not know really what to expect. In a word Leslie Gulch is fantastic. The rock is volcanic and has been shaped by water and wind into fantastic shapes. Ton took a bunch of pictures that she does not think does the place justice.
We took a chance and drove to the other end of the road to Lake Owyhee State Park, thinking it would be empty like the other parks this trip. We were wrong! There were two fishing tournaments going on and it looked like we were going to have to drive back out, but at the last minute someone said that at 7pm the handicapped spots were available if they had not been claimed, since it was 6:50 we ended up spending the night in a nice flat space with all of the amenities.
Today was a busy day. We drove from LaPine to Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge. The title is interesting as it is set up to protect the Pronghorn, but Pronghorn are not Antelope, though they are frequently referred to as Pronghorn Antelope. We arrived at the refuge about noon and drove the roads hoping to spot some Pronghorns. After driving for about two hours we spotted three single Pronghorns and a couple of Grouse.
After several hours and only three Pronghorn to show for our efforts we decided to drive over to Frenchglen for the night. As we were leaving the Refuge we suddenly came upon about 50 or 60 Pronghorn. Ton took some nice pictures.
Spent several hours on the Pronghorn Refuge looking for Pronghorn without success, only to come across these guys leaving the refuge.
Southeast Oregon is really amazing to me for how empty it is. There are miles and miles with great vistas. Sometimes you can go 45 minutes without seeing another car on the roads. Despite the emptiness, the roads are really good whether they are paved or gravel. Everyone tends to stress the risk of driving in these empty lands, but it does not take much common sense to stay out of trouble out here.
Today was another travel day heading north. We had a slow start due to the after affects of last nights wine. We stopped in Reading to check out the Sundial Bridge there. It is a nice piece of architecture, and we observed a new form of dance. Three people were hanging by lines from the Sundial part of the bridge and were practicing a performance “dance” while suspended from 30 to 60 feet above the ground.
A dance rehearsal for a festival later in the week.
Then we continued north to Bend where we stopped to pick up a growler of beer from Ton’s favorite brewery Boneyard. We then did our obligatory pass thru Costco, and finished up the day by trying a new for us brewery in Bend, Worthy Brewery. Breweries are spring up in Bend and every time we come it seems there are 2 or 3 new ones to check out.
We called it a day early today to watch the three game 7’s of the Stanley Cup Playoff’s. Tomorrow we will be dropping Scout off at the Provan dealer to get some warranty work done.
Today we cruised down Highway 101 from Tillamook to Gold Beach. We have been cruising this road many times since we moved here 17 years ago. It is a truly incredible stretch of road that I do not think I can do justice. We also realized how spoiled we are having such ready access to this road as today was a little hazy so we were kind of ho hum as we passed on a lot of the spectacular pull outs along the road.
We stopped at two light houses that we had not visited before, the Yaquina Head light house in Newport and the Umpqua River light house. As we were coming into Newport Ton and I were debating whether we had been there. We decided to go visit to see and it turns out we had somehow missed it in our previous trips. This lighthouse is managed by the BLM and has quite a nice visitor center. The Yaquina Head lighthouse is the tallest of the Oregon lighthouses and is located on a nice head land with great views of the ocean. The other lighthouse is quite different it is run by the Oregon State Parks, but is located in the middle of a neighborhood of Coast Guard family housing. You can see the lighthouse but cannot approach it as it is fenced off as part of the perimeter of the Coast Guard housing. The housing is a typical style of housing that was built in the 60’s but the location is great, one of the benefits of military housing is it is quite often located on very high value real estate. I am not sure where the Coasties who are quartered there work as it is about half way between Reedsport and Coos Bay, but the view is probably worth the commute. The lighthouse is quite a way in land and overlooks some of the Oregon Dunes that stretch between Reedsport and Coos Bay.
The Yaquina Head lighthouse.
We stopped for the night in Gold Beach and found a nice little Camp Ground right on the beach for a very reasonable price. The very light haze that had followed us down the coast was still present so the sunset was not as spectacular as the location led us to believe it would be.
Today we did a loop from LaPine to Christmas Valley Oregon. Our friend Tim told us about a geological feature called Crack in the Ground so we decided to head out to Christmas Valley to check it out. Our original plan for this trip was to go to the Owyhees, but due to the delay for the plumbing issues we decided to wait until later in the year to go there.
In route we stopped at Fort Rock, which is an interesting formation formed when volcanic rock was pumped into an ancient lake about 10000 years ago. It is a state park. We took a quick walk but the high winds and blowing dust discouraged us a bit.
Ft. Rock.
Next we moved on to Christmas Valley to check out crack in the rock. This is a relatively new feature caused by volcanic activity. It is a fissure in the ground that runs for about 2 miles and at places is up to 70 feet deep. Getting there was interesting as we traveled 7 miles on a very washboarded forest service road. We finally figured out that the washboard was less of a problem at 30 mph than it was at 20 mph. We climbed down into the crack and followed for about half a mile. It was very interesting and at least in this area a pretty easy walk.
Today we wrapped up the repair at Larry’s RV. Ron took Scout in to Larry’s and as promised plan B did work and Scout was returned to us with a fully functioning plumbing system again. While at Larry’s Ron noticed that Malayan number 2 was being prepared for delivery. This truck was built and initially used for a promotional tour and is featured on a cable TV show called Wingshooting USA. It is now being delivered to a buyer in Idaho.
The rest of the day was spent with our friends Tim and Tan enjoying their hospitality and doing some shopping at the outlet mall in Bend.
In the morning we woke up to a reply from the Provan dealer in Redmond saying to just swing by at our convenience and they could replace the failed shower valve. We decided to go ahead with our tour of the wildlife refuge and go to Redmond tomorrow to take care of the problem. Tonight we will be taking a $2 shower.
The Malheur Wildlife refuge is run by the Fish and Wildlife Service and contains two large shallow lakes and the remnants of a turn of the 20th century irrigation system that had destroyed a large natural wetland. The Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to use the irrigation system to restore the wetlands over time. It is quite large running from north of Malheur lake to the base of the Steens Mountains near Frenchglen, Oregon over 187,000 acres.
After a quick stop at the nice visitors center and museum we decided to drive the patrol road which is about 25 miles of gravel through the central “wetlands” of the refuge. This time of year the migratory waterfowl are passing through including Snow Geese and Swans sometimes by the thousands.
On the easy gravel road we did not see too many sightings of birds, mostly Canadian Geese, and one flock of snow birds. We also saw a small herd of mule deer. Ron was excited to see a grouse but was not fast enough to get a picture.
We surprised this herd of mule deer.
When we got to the southern end of the patrol road near French Glen we decided to drive around the base of the Steens Mountain. Steens Mountain is one of our favorite places in Oregon. It is an upthrust mountain that is 35 miles long and rises 6000 feet out of the desert to an elevation just a little shy of 10000 feet. On the west side of the mountains is typical Oregon sagebrush desert. On the east side in the rain shadow of Steens Mt. is the Alvord desert a 12 by 7 mile dry lake bed. There are roads to the top of Steen Mountain that are accessible in the summer and we decided that we would be returning later in the year to climb the mountain in Scout.
At the end of the day Ton wanted to drive into the refuge for a beauty shot of the refuge sign, and right before the headquarters in a farmers field, were all of the snow geese we had spent the day looking for.
After spending the day driving the refuge looking for snow geese, we came across this flock just off of the reserve on the way to the campground.
It has been a while since we posted Ron has been traveling a bit for work so Scout has been sitting in the driveway a while. We did take one short weekend trip to Whidbey Island Washington and Seattle since the shakedown.
After the rest period we decided to take a trip to Eastern Oregon. The plan was to go to Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, visit some friends in LaPine Oregon and if weather and road conditions permitted go to Leslie Gulch in the Owhyees in far South East Oregon.
Today was primarily a driving day to get out to Burns which is about 250 miles east of Portland. As we made our way east we passed over Santiam pass in the Cascades to Bend. In Bend made our normal stop at Costco to stretch and stock up on food. The 3 hours from Bend to Burns is a great reminder of how big and empty Eastern Oregon is. US Highway 20 does not pass through any towns for the 150 miles from Bend to Burns. It is sagebrush desert and while not spectacular country it is pretty.
Once we got to Burns we had another 30 miles to where we were camping for the night on the edge of the Wildlife Refuge. Had a little unfortunate surprise at the commercial campground we were staying at, when we went to use the showers we discovered that it cost $2 for 4 minutes of water, so we decided to go back and use the shower in Scout only to find that the valve for the shower controller gaskets had failed. Now we will be altering our plans to include a trip to the Provan dealer in Bend as we do not have the tools or the parts on board to fix the problem.
Sunset near Malheur Wildlife Refuge, Princeton Oregon.
Today was the last drive of the shakedown cruise for Scout. Woke up this morning to 7 degree temperatures and snow. This was the coldest night of the trip that we spent in Scout. The heater ran hard all night, but we were comfortable enough to sleep with our arms and faces out of the blankets which is a sign of comfortable temperatures.
The best route across the Cascades.
We looked at our options to get across the Cascades this morning, taking into consideration we did not have chains yet. Our chicken route going down to the Columbia Gorge was not good, steady 35 mile per hour winds with 70 mph gusts. The short way across the mountains, US 26 had -7 degree temps and 30 mph winds, so we elected a longer route across the Santiam Pass. We ran into packed snow most of the way. The Malayan handled the snow very well with not one slip or slide. Ton was able to get some good pictures. It took us about an hour longer than usual to cover the 180 miles, which is not bad given the conditions.
Tonight will be the last night in the Tiger for the shakedown cruise. We drove to Redmond OR to go by the Tiger dealer there to get an electrical item taken care of. We had called in advance and told them the part we needed, as had Mark’s team from Provan. When we showed up the part was there and it took about 15 minutes to install. We used the time there to look at Malayan #2 which was at the dealer for sale. Since it took much less time than we anticipated we decided to go to the DMV and register Scout. So Scout is now officially an Oregon vehicle.
Today the drive took us up US 395 through Lakeview Oregon and then OR 31 over to US 97. These are great roads to explore and I expect we will spend a lot of time out there in the future. As we got closer to Redmond the weather started to deteriorate and it began to snow pretty vigorously so any thoughts we may have had of pressing on to Portland ended. Instead we decided to toast the trip by going by a microbrewery (of course) in Redmond.
We are now in a RV park hunkered down for the night. If the weather forecast is correct this is going to be the coldest of the many cold nights at -2 degrees.
A state most famous for Las Vegas. While it only has one National Park, it does have some very good state parks, and a lot of open rugged areas to camp in. We visit fairly frequently as one of our sons is a teacher in Las Vegas.
Today I made like a commercial truck driver and focused on miles and not fun. I covered a little over 600 miles in 10 hours. It was made easier by driving a route I really enjoy. I love the quiet roads and expansive views of the Great Basin. For me it really is low stress driving for me.
I was still on the road for sunset and the Great Basin rewarded me with a great desert sunset.
I decided to begin pointing towards home last night. I am beginning to miss Ton. But I wanted to try one more Nevada Park before leaving. A couple of years ago Ton and I swung thru Cathedral Gorge State Park without stopping. I wanted to check it out so that was the target for today.
The day began with a bit of a mishap. I woke up just after dawn so I decided to take a walk to enjoy sunset as it was only a three hour drive. It was a nice walk and the red rocks of Valley of Fire were spectacular. When I arrived at the campground I met a nice couple from Washington out walking their dog. We chatted for a while about different places before I went in to finish up preparing to leave. I needed to brush my teeth and I reached into the bag I keep the toiletries in and instead of grabbing my toothbrush I grabbed my razor and managed to cut the end of my index finger pretty deeply. I threw a band-aid on it and started to finish up packing. While I was putting up the electric cord I noticed my finger was bleeding considerably, so I grabbed the first aid kit and tried to stop the bleeding. I finally got the bleeding somewhat under control and was heading out when I saw the couple from Washington waving at me vigorously, I thought how nice, but then they shouted at me to stop. I had forgotten to close the door, and left the steps down on Scout. How embarrassing, fortunately my finger was starting to drip blood to show the reason for my incompetence as a RV’er.
The drive to Cathedral Gorge was uneventful. When I arrived at the park around 12:30 I debated whether to stop, it is going to be cold tonight and since I am heading home why not get in another 3 or 4 hours towards home? I drove in and after checking the excellent campground complete with electricity I decided to stay.
The Tower in the center was built as water storage in the 1930’s.
Cathedral Gorge is another beautiful site. It is a box canyon with interesting sides eroded to look like cathedrals if you have imagination.
Some of the “Cathedral” in Cathedral Gorge.
In the 1930’s during the depression the Civilian Conservation Corps built some interesting structures including a water tank and a picnic area that have survived until today.
This picnic area made of Mesquite trees and roofed with Willow branches has survived since the 1930’s.
They also have a nice trail system that is well signposted and easy to follow. Someone did a nice job with interpretive signs describing the flora and fauna of the area. It was a nice easy walk to make the day. As I am typing this I am watching a beautiful sunset to confirm my decision to stay was the right one.
Part of the trail system with a grove of Mesquites.
Valley of Fire State Park has been on my list for this trip since the beginning. Ton and I stopped here last year and it is really spectacular. The name is apt as the hills in the park are a bright red.
The drive over was even windier then yesterday and the temperature has fallen nearly 30 degrees. The sky is blue but the wind chill is at or a little below freezing. Scout was getting blown around pretty good on the highway as I made my way thru the desert from Laughlin to Las Vegas. I decided to by-pass Las Vegas by cutting thru the Lake Mead Recreation Area. I do not have to pay the entrance fee with my senior pass and there is no traffic on the scenic highway thru the recreation area, making for a much more relaxing drive.
When I got to the Valley of Fire I had to pay my entrance fee (no free entry for State Parks, only National Parks.) When I went by the visitors center to check things out and pay the fee, the ranger told me that as it was so cold there may be a couple of spots available in the full hook up area with electricity, but if I was interested I needed to head right over there. Since it is going to below freezing tonight having electricity to run the heater seemed like a good idea so I hustled over there and claimed the last electric spot.
Enjoying the Petroglyphs, picture courtesy of a nice German tourist.
A few hundred yards from the campground is a Petroglyph site. It is pretty high up a canyon wall so they have built a nice ladder and platform so you can observe the Petroglyphs. As i climbed down I saw a group clustered around a rock a couple of hundred yards away so I wandered over there to see what they were looking at. It turns out it was another large set of Petroglyphs at ground level that the park does not advertise. It was fascinating to try to interpret the symbols. Some are pretty obvious and some are not obvious at all to me.
The platform for the Petroglyphs.
After finishing up I decided to take a short hike thru a rock formation that I suspected would loop around and return me to the campground. After about 30 minutes walking thru the desert looking at the red rock formations I popped thru a narrow wash and came right into the campground feeling like a real adventurer.
Part of my walk. The rock in the left center reminded me of a throne in 3 dimensions.
After warming up for an hour or so I took another short hike to a display I saw off in the distance. It was late afternoon and the wind was getting even stronger and the display was disappointing so I called it a day and returned to Scout, turned on the heater, cooked supper, and put on The Sand Pebbles with Steve McQueen.
It is going to be a short one today as there is nothing much to talk about. I needed to begin moving towards home and after a couple of days of looking for something around Phoenix I could not come up with anything that caught my interest. So I decided to spend the day driving and have stopped in the economy Las Vegas, Laughlin Nevada. In fact it is so economical that I am staying in a casino hotel for less than most campgrounds.
The other reason for my decision to wimp out was the wind was blowing a gale, with steady wind around 40 mph and gusts to 60 (if you can believe the warning signs posted by the Arizona Department of Transport).
I do not gamble so there is not much for me to do in a casino. I walked around the lobby a little, noting that KISS was going to be playing there at the end of the month. The crowd looked to be a mixture of seniors, Chinese tourists, and people coming over from California on tour busses for cheap gambling. After a while people watching I went back to the room and watched some TV before turning in early.
It is a short one today. Alex and I met in the morning and had a buffet at one of the casinos at the strip. We then walked the strip and did some people watching, and kept up with the news of Kobe Bryants’ death.
Alex had a baby shower to attend so I went back and cleaned scout, and did some laundry. Alex joined me again for dinner and we had a good father son talk it was an enjoyable day for me.
Scout tucked in among all of the giant RV’s at Las Vegas RV Resort.
Today was a quiet day in Las Vegas with Alex my son. He is an elementary school teacher here and has been at the same school for 6 years. I realized I had never seen his classroom so I asked if he could show me. He walked me thru the school for about 30 minutes and told me about the joys and the trials of teaching. While he has a lot of frustrations, he truly enjoys what he is doing and works very hard to help his kids. I am proud of him.
After that we just drove around the non-tourist part of Las Vegas, visiting the hockey team training facility (Alex is a big fan), a teachers supply store, and had a nice lunch. We ended the day at the casino down the street watching the Lakers game on TV.
