Today
was going to be a long day also. Got up early again. Why can’t I sleep till 8?
Got ready and realized I left my hair spray at the Itty Bitty Inn. That’s what
happens when I go back and forth from the car. Oh well – will just have to get
another one. Went for breakfast. It was an English muffin and coffee. Good enough.
Left at 8:45ish to first buy some hair spray. Walgreen is just next door – perfect. Picked up a travel size spray and promptly went out the wrong road! Ended up going to downtown. Turned around and came back on 97. Then things were in order. Went on 97, then 126 to 26 for the John Day Park. It was about a 2 hour drive. A lot of it was pretty but I knew I would be coming back the same way (then it would get boring). Stopped at McDonald’s in Prineville to go and have a hash brown. Consistency of the McDonald’s!! The drive was quite different than what I had been doing before. It was quite bare, hills were not that high and they all seemed different than hills I am used to seeing. also the foliage was quite different.
Reached
the entrance of the park around 11am. It is a huge park, I started with the
west side, the Painted Hills Unit. The actual trails start after 6 miles. The
scenery got really beautiful and I started seeing the red hills. Amazing!! The
visitor’s center on this side of the park was dismal. I needed to go but not in
those toilets!! So I held it. Picked up the maps from there and started
driving. It is hard to write how beautiful the scenery was. The small and large
hills – colored red and yellowish and some blackish…just breathtaking. One has
to be there to be able to admire it all. I wanted to do all the trails but one
as that was 3 miles. The first overlook was the best. It gave me a feeling of as
if I was in a different planet. Just different.
Went
to three more trails, only one was just mheh.it had a hill of broken rocks that
have fossils. You cannot get close to it or pick any stones, so what’s the
point? All the other trails were great. The plant life here is quite different
too. I have never seen such plants before.
The next section – the Sheep Rock Unit is about 20 miles using Hwy 26, but since I had time, I took the scenic route from inside the park. It took me more than an hour to get to the other side, which I did not realize I was there until the trail came. Anyway…I am getting ahead. The drive itself was very picturesque – there were green mountains in the middle also. So many horse ranches here. After I got on Hwy 19, the John Day River joined me too…such a pretty drive. Driving along the river is always very romantic for me. Very long though! But definitely good one time around. I did something that I never do in USA!! I had to stop at a rest stop and go in the nature! Hehe! One thing to mention – all inside the park, the traffic was almost zero. Part of me was worried about me driving in such a lonely area, but then the horse ranches started appearing and life was good again.
The next section – the Sheep Rock Unit is about 20 miles using Hwy 26, but since I had time, I took the scenic route from inside the park. It took me more than an hour to get to the other side, which I did not realize I was there until the trail came. Anyway…I am getting ahead. The drive itself was very picturesque – there were green mountains in the middle also. So many horse ranches here. After I got on Hwy 19, the John Day River joined me too…such a pretty drive. Driving along the river is always very romantic for me. Very long though! But definitely good one time around. I did something that I never do in USA!! I had to stop at a rest stop and go in the nature! Hehe! One thing to mention – all inside the park, the traffic was almost zero. Part of me was worried about me driving in such a lonely area, but then the horse ranches started appearing and life was good again.
And then I started seeing these beautiful green rocks and stopped to take pictures,
without realizing I was already on the other side. Well – not such a big deal,
as there is only one place to walk the trails. I saw all that there was to see
before I reached the trails. There were two – a 3 mile and a 1 mile. By this
time it was about 3:30pm. The sun was burning down at 100oF. I tried walking a
little but gave up. The headache from the heat was too much, despite drinking
water. At least I have good pictures.
Soon
after, the visitor’s center came. Yes – I never miss any visitor’s center as
they have good information. Saw the 20 mins video on the park. Amazing! So the
formations show the life over 60 million years! Layer by layer one can go from
60 to 50 to 45 to 30 all the way to 5 million years. John Day park is a heaven
for paleontologists and geologists (who knew?!). Ever since the 1880s they have
been discovering fossils here and they are still finding new ones. Apparently
this area used to be a tropical area before, so all the animal fossils (bones
etc.) are of strange species never to be found in USA. There are a lot of plant
fossils also. Using all this the scientists can create what this area must have
looked over 60 million years; and also determine what caused the changes in the
ecosystem based on the soil study and volcanic activity.
I
am really glad I went to this park. It was a little out of the way, but worth
it for me. There were not many tourists here (like there were in the Crater Lake
Park), so it was quite peaceful and enjoyable. I also learned that the green
rock does not have copper!! It is made of a complex of aluminum, silicon etc…it
is a complex – and that complex is green in color.
There
was one more stop before leaving, sort of outside the park, called the Mascal
Overlook. I am glad I took 20 mins to visit this one. The high elevation of
this overlook shows a nice scenic view of the Sheep Rock area. It is just
beautiful. And now that I know all this has fossils of 60 million years, I
respect it a lot more. A lot of other parks don’t have such history or
preservation or science. They are just scenic and some do promote the
preservation of a particular ecosystem.
Anyway…the
drive back was not that boring, RD Burman songs gave me good company. The
scenery was still good, but now I was focused more on driving and getting back.
The sun had given me a headache. I wanted to eat before crashing in the motel,
so starting looking for Izzy’s on the list of restaurants I had, but could not
find it. So decided to go for Mexican. Found a fast food type place, Baha Fresh
was right on 3rd St. near the hotel. Had a quesadilla and some
chips. Filled me up!! One of their salsa was very good – it was just chilles I
think – but it was not hot.
All
in all another good day!
Got
an email back from the rafting guys that they did not have any openings. Called
him to thank him for letting me know, and he told me about another company in 7th
Mountain Resort that offers short rafting tours. So called them – they picked
up – even at 8 pm! So now I am reserved to go in the morning at 10 am! Yay! I
really wanted to do it. So tomorrow is also all set – rafting then scenic
drive. Oh lord I am driving too much in this trip!! Please keep me safe.
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