2023 Trip 7: Northwest U S: History and Adventure: Sept. 9

La Pine, Oregon September 9, Saturday

September 9 is our wedding anniversary, 51 years. It was a day of travel; scenery that was widely and wildly different in just the space of one day.

Leaving Pendleton, I thought the first part of the route would be on relatively flat agricultural land on eastern Oregon’s high desert plains. The reality was different. Agriculture yes as fields of hay and herds of cattle were evident. The road, however, while smooth as those of the entire day were, was curvy and hilly. We left Pendleton at an elevation of 1200 feet and climbed to an elevation of 4700 feet.

Even on the high plains, the terrain remained hilly and the road hugged the curvy sides of hillsides, requiring you to constantly lower your speed from the posted 55 mph. The elevation went up and down, slowly making wide changes.

Then, bang, you’re entering a forested, mountainous, without being dramatic mountains, region. The road maintained that curvy aspect, this time with steeper drop offs. Overall, the roads did not have that nerve shattering hairpin, really steep drop offs that we have experienced elsewhere.

We did two separate regions like this, with sign posts that called them a scenic byway. In a side note, we picked up a Oregon brochure listing state scenic roads and only about five percent of today’s journey was a listed scenic road-and that publication listed 29 scenic roads.

In the forested regions, that recognizable pine tree smell added to the journey. The CD player was put to use as we listened to Pete Seeger and Simon and Garfunkel. Other than the fact we were in a very lightly populated area in case something happened, it was quite pleasant.

After about three hours of this, we were deciding if we should stop and eat the bagels we packed. We had gone through two small towns, really small towns, and the local cafes were shuttered. We came to Dayville, population 133. There was a cafe, it was open, even if the sign out front said business for sale.

What the heck, we took a chance. The Dayville Cafe would be our big anniversary meal. It was a good stop. The clientele was a mix of travelers who like us decided to take a chance and of locals who knew each other and the staff. The food was good and the wide selection of pies were all homemade. I had rhubarb and Chris had blueberry peach. Yummy. We even considered taking an extra piece with us but finally decided not to.

On to our one site to visit for the day. John Day Fossil Beds is a National Park National Monument. Central Oregon has wide expanses of land that have been covered by a series of volcanic actions from lava flows to ash deposition. This happened over millions of years, after the age of the dinosaurs. Through a series of actions by state and federal officials, a small portion of this expense of land has been created as a national monument where further paleontology work is being done.

John Day Fossil Beds is unique. Most fossil sites around the world capture a narrow span of time. John Day Fossil Beds is more like a photo album, chronicling how life has changed over 40 million years. Fossil hunting started here in 1862. Fossils and paleontology were studied here by numerous universities and fossils from here are all over the world. Beginning in 1927, the state of Oregon was wise enough to start protecting some of the land as state parks. In 1975 the national monument was officially established, incorporating several of those state parks.

We came for the scenery and the fossil viewing. Both were gorgeous. The Park film gave a good introduction to the national monument. The exhibits in the visitor center have displays depicting life as it might’ve been at that time as well as actual fossils. The park has paleontologists on staff and during the week visitors can observe their work through a glass walled viewing area.

The scenery on the way to the visitor center is gorgeous, but the real highlight is visiting the section called Painted Hills. Here the hill sides are a combination of green, white, and red, along with the usual bits of brown. Once we finished, taking our usual, too many pictures, we continued our drive to just south of Bend Oregon to spend the night.

The final change in scenery happened south of Bend as we rolled along the highway through forested areas in the middle of lava fields. We had visited this portion of Oregon before and did not stop this time to revisit any of those lava fields.

Ed and Chris, La Pine OR Sept. 10