John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

As I write this post, I'm already at home, and so you will have to travel through time with me while I tell you what happened yesterday.  It's been a busy couple of days and this is the first chance I've had to blog about the last day of our trip.  I have so much to tell you before moving back to the humdrum of day-to-day life here at the Three Cats Ranch.

Yesterday, we took off fairly early because it was a full day of driving to see the parts of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument that we wanted to see.  The monument is divided into three parts each of which is some distance away from the other parts:  the Clarno Unit, the Painted Hills Unit, and the Sheep Rock Unit.  We saw only the Sheep Rock Unit and the Painted Hills Unit (which was the part I really wanted to see).

The visitor's center is at the Sheep Rock Unit, and it was 30 miles from where we were staying.  Before arriving there, however, we stopped at the Mascall Formation lookout.  If you click on the link, you can read more about it.  Here's what we saw:

The whole point of this exhibit was to demonstrate the uplifting forces and the erosion processes that have shaped the John Day region.  It's easy to imagine with the different formations you can see here.

There isn't much else to say about this except that it gave me an opportunity to take pictures of some of the sage brushes that were in bloom.

After that, we got back in the car and continued on to the Sheep Rock section of the park.  These were some of the formations we saw once we arrived at the visitor center.

This next image shows the formation for which this part of the park is named.  Below this image, is a picture of the sign explaining what you are seeing.

You can click on the explanatory image to make it larger and easier to read.  It is believed that the formation was named for the sheep that once grazed its slopes.

The Painted Hills section of the park was another 30 miles down the road, and so we stopped in the tiny town of Mitchell, Oregon, (pop. 106) for some burgers at the Little Pine Cafe.  One burger would have been enough for the both of us, but we didn't realize it until they were served.  The burgers were excellent, but the people were downright charming.  The woman who showed us to our table didn't actually work there.  She was just there chatting with the woman who was doing the cooking.  She took our order, answered the phone, and informed us that she was going to go off and read the electric meters.  That was in addition to the small business she owned down the street from the cafe.  She was an all-about-town kind of gal.

Then we went on to the Painted Hills.  They were as beautiful and as interesting as I hoped they would be.  This was the first formation we came to.

As we drove on a little further, we could see the larger landscape.

We walked the 1/4-mile loop of the Painted Cove trail, which reminded us very much of the Artist's Palette in Death Valley.

It's easier for me to just post images of the signs so that you can read for yourself what you're seeing here.

Smitty and Gracie liked this next picture best.

The loop took us up a hill where we could see the entire formation and loop walkway.  The area beyond the red rocks is a privately owned ranch.

This next image was coming toward the end of the loop.  I like the combination of the red, brown, and mauve soils.

These are our shadow selves.  I like to take pictures of them every now and then.  They only show themselves in the late afternoon sun.

After that, we returned to a formation we had driven past initially and walked the in and out 1/2-mile Painted Hills Overlook Trail where we could get a more panoramic view of the place. 

Here is the sign that will help you understand what you're seeing, if you're interested.

Mike and I are always amazed at the age of things.  33 million years.  Fantastic.

As we stood at the top of the overlook and turned around 180 degrees, this next image shows how it looked in the other direction.

I put this next image in for scale.  You can see our burgundy truck almost exactly in the middle of the image.

There were signs posted everywhere imploring people not to walk on the hillsides and damage the fragile terrain.  We believe this trail was made by animals.

And that was where we ended our day.  After that, we drove the 80 or so miles back to where our trailer was.

This morning we were up and gone early and drove home.  We stopped in Sisters, Oregon, so that I could visit The Stitchin' Post quilt shop, which happens to be one of my favorite quilt shops of all time.  I'll need to tell you about that later.  It is nearly midnight, and I'm ready for bed.  I will tell you more tomorrow.

For now I'm a little overwhelmed with all I need to do in the next couple of days to get organized and back into my comfortable rut.  The trailer needs to be unpacked, there are yards of fabric that need to be put away, and the sewing room is in a disaster.  The house is fairly clean since I cleaned it before we left, but it will be terribly disorganized as we unpack the trailer.  The tomato plants are looking good.  Neighbors and family picked the tomatoes while we were gone, and so there aren't too many ripe ones to harvest.  The plants have grown so tall that they are practically lifting the greenhouse off its pad, and so they need to be whacked back.  Most of the potted annuals are done in from lack of water, but a few can be salvaged.

It will all need to wait for tomorrow, however.  For now, I'm hitting the hay.