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I have created some entries on Worldisround where you will find pictures from my trip:

Highlights

John Day

Thursday June 17 -

Today was primarily the after-work drive from Seattle to the Oregon town of John Day, taking the interstate from Seattle to Pendleton, Oregon, and then heading south on US395 to John Day in east central Oregon.  This was a new route for me.  Eastern Washington's high desert sagebrush and wheat fields were familiar.  I had expected this scenery to extend down into Oregon, but instead I was surprised by grass and tree-covered hills and mountains.  It was quite pretty, and I couldn't resist stopping for a few photos along the way.

I found a hotel and then walked through town to find a place for dinner.  Back to my room to plan out tomorrow's activities.  I turned in relatively early given the full day that I had planned.

Friday June 18 -

I headed west on US26, stopping near Dayville for some pictures of just the right mix of sage, sky and clouds.  Then it was on to my first stop.

John Day National Monument consists of three units scattered across north central Oregon.  It preserves some of ancient Oregon's volcanic landscapes, especially colorful ash deposits that hold extensive fossil beds.  The Sheep Rock unit also presents a slice of Oregon's more recent history, preserving a ranch house and related outbuildings.  Limited visitor displays available during my previous visits to the park have been replaced by a new visitor center at Sheep Rock with extensive information about the park and its history.  I first came across the park during a 1996 drive around Oregon to finish off the state's counties and NPS sites and got hooked on the Painted Hills Unit's colorful scenery.  I would do more hiking today at Sheep Rock, coming away with an even greater appreciation of the features of this park.

I pulled off the highway at the Mascali Formation Overlook, which provides a taste of the park's scenery, including a view of Highway 26 as the highway, following the John Day River, enters into Picture Gorge.  I stopped along the road in Picture Gorge to take - what else? - some pictures, these featuring some classic examples of basalt columns.  Thousands of square miles of eastern Washington and Oregon were covered with thick layers of basalt and volcanic ash deposits.  Subsequent erosion led to the coulees of Washington and several examples of exposed basalt columns in both states.  The gorge actually gets its names from some ancient pictographs, some of which may be 1000 years old.

I headed north on Oregon Hwy 19, stopping when I reached the new visitor center - a pleasant surprise since my last visit here.  Among the exhibits was a window into the labs where researchers work on newly discovered fossils.

My next stop was at the James Cant Ranch.  This ranch was once the park's visitor center.  Today it features the ranch house, some outbuildings and some of the ranch equipment, along with some historical markers.  

I stopped for some photos of Cathedral Rock as I headed north to the Foree Area.  At Foree I hiked two very short trails.  The Flood of Fire Trail leads to a viewpoint of the basalt cliffs in the area.  The Story in Stone Trail follows one of the park's bluish-green-pink claystone hills, with a number of signs providing information about the geology and fossils of the area.

After getting warmed up with those short trails, I headed back south to the Blue Basin area.  The Blue Basin is just that, a crater-like amphitheatre eroded into the soft bluish-green and pink claystone and tuff deposits.  A mile-long hike leads into and out of the amphitheatre, putting visitors in the center of that alien landscape.  A three mile-long hike climbs up and around the rim of the amphitheatre, providing a different perspective of the amphitheatre and great views of the John Day River valley and surrounding landscape.  With its color and the terrific scenery, these trails comprise one of my favorite hikes in the country.

It was nearing time for lunch, so I moved on, heading west to Mitchell, where I stopped to pick up some snacks and cold pop before heading a few miles further to the Painted Hills.  As one nears the entrance, bright red hills pops out of the green landscape.  A large off-white hill - White Mesa - is visible from the entrance - I have a photo of it from an earlier trip in which the hill seems to almost glow, something that I seemed to almost capture with my new camera this time, but not quite.  The road into the park leads into and up the side of a large amphitheatre of this off-white claystone streaked with reds, yellows and greys.  I stopped for some pictures along the drive and then took a walk along the Painted Hills Overlook Trail for its views of the basin.

I skipped the Carroll Rim Trail, but I took the two other trails.  The parking area at Painted Cove provides views of a lake area, part of the Bridge River, actually, but the real highlight is the cove itself, a small claystone outcropping that features bright rust, lavender, purple, orange and yellow layers, probably the most concentrated assortment of colorful rock that I've come across anywhere in my travels.

The short Leaf Hill trail lacks the color of other parts of the Painted Hills Unit, but its focus is on the fossils of the area, mostly those of leaves, given the name of this trail.  Thousands of leaf fossils found here gave insight into the ecosystem of the region some 33 million years ago.

That finished up the Painted Hills Unit.  I then began the drive to the Clarno Unit, maybe 25-30 miles as the crow flies, but 60-70 miles by state highway.  The Clarno Unit has a much different look than the other units.  Its main feature, the cliffs of the Palisades, were created 44 million years ago by volcanic-based mudflows - lahars - preserving fossils from a lush tropical forest featuring small horses, early crocodiles and meat-eating creodonts.  The unit features three short trails that frankly seem like just one overall trail.  The Geologic Time trail connects the parking area to the other trails.  The Trail of the Fossils is the only trail in the park where fossils are easily spotted - leaves and logs, especially.  Another trail leads from this trail towards the base of the Palisades directly under a natural arch (a second, much smaller arch can be spotted from the Geologic Time trail).

And that was it for John Day.  Great scenery and 10 hikes, but only about 8 miles of hiking - a bit more if I hadn't skipped two minor trails.  This was my third trip here - my second visit to the Clarno Unit and first visit to the Foree Area and first time on the rim trail at Blue Basin, so I still had plenty to discover.  And I had beautiful weather and came home with lots of good digital pictures, so it turned out to be just one of those really great getaway days.

My plan was to end the day in Portland, which was a bit of a drive away.  I took a route through Shaniko, a village I had passed through quickly once before but had thought that it was trying to look like something, so I made note of it.  At one time a major transportation hub, Shaniko was once known as the Wool Capital of the World, but the town began a long decline as transportation services changed.  Today it is considered Oregon's best known ghost town (actually 26 non-ghosts still live here).  Several original buildings survive, and the town has taken on a tourist-oriented flair with antique shops, dining and lodging readily available.

Now off to Portland.  I made just one more stop, this for a couple photos of a distant Mt. Hood.  In Portland I checked into my usual hotel, the City Center Marriott, got some dinner, made my plans for tomorrow, and then headed out for some Friday night nightlife, checking out the scene at Three Sisters Tavern before heading over to my usual haunt at Silverado.

T-shirt message on a kid at the McDonalds in the town of John Day, Oregon:  "Work Sucks - I'm Going to the Mountains"

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Mount Hood

Saturday June 19 -

Today's plan was for me to do some hiking out at Mt. Hood.  I had another beautiful day for it.  I hit the road early and headed for a place called Lost Lake.  It was well off the main highway - the route I took to get there was mostly a narrow one-lane road.  Given its isolation, I was surprised at how much traffic I encountered, figuring the nice weather must have brought out a lot of people.

And then I reached the lake.  Talk about a disappointment.  It was my fault for not doing my homework, but apparently Lost Lake is a popular camping/resort area.  Lots of people and lots of camping surrounded the lake.  There was indeed a hiking trail around the lake, but it was filled with fishing families and yelling kids.  Not the kind of isolated trail-all-to-myself kind of hiking that I usually hope for.  But I took the 3+ mile hike around the lake anyway as it did provide me with some nice views of Mt. Hood.

I picked up some snacks at the store (!) there and then headed for my second planned hike.  

En route I stopped at the Barlow Road site, the last overland segment of the Oregon Trail.  I checked out the remnants of the road, and read some historical markers and then headed for the nearby Hidden Lake trail head.  It is two miles to Hidden Lake and 4 1/2 to the Pacific Crest Trail.  I figure I went in about three miles and then three miles back, enjoying the nice hike, the near-lack of other hikers on the trail and the pretty but unexceptional mountain lake.  The two hikes combined for almost 10 miles, making for an easy-paced day.  I picked up a few more Mt. Hood shots on my way back to Portland.

I got back to the hotel just before the street was blocked for a short parade - the Dyke March in advance of tomorrow's Portland Gay Pride Parade.  Signs at the hotel warned guests who might need to leave that they wouldn't be able to get to their cars during the parade, but my plans had me leaving early.

Dinner.  Same nightlife as last night.  Pretty crowded, too, which I suspect was due to it being Gay Pride weekend.

Mount St. Helens and Home

Sunday June 20 -

Time to head back to Seattle.  Seattle and Portland are connected by I-5, and if there aren't any traffic tie-ups the drive between their downtowns is under three hours.  But there are some interesting side excursion options between the two cities, with Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier NP the most interesting of them.  Of course, weather and winter road closings (which can last into July) are factors to consider, but I had checked things out in advance.  I planned a route to check out the Windy Ridge area of Mt. St. Helens followed by a drive through Mt. Rainier as my way home.

My first area of exploration at Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument was in the area near the town of Cougar on the south side of the monument.  This area features older lava flows and lava tubes with hiking trails and geological markers provided in several areas.  Because the famous 1980 eruption directed its force in the opposite direction, many sites on the south side look a lot like they did before the eruption.

I began at Ape Cave Lava Tube.  Lava tubes form when the surface of a stream of lava begins to harden and then the lava flowing underneath it drains out.  I've seen a number of lava tubes in my travels - they're basically volcanic caves.  Ape Cave is pretty long, dark, cool and unlit.  I didn't have a flashlight with me, so I stuck close to the entrance, but a lot of visitors hike well into the tube.

My next stop was the Trail of Two Forests.  Flowing lava had enveloped a forest at that location, so rock today features several small pits and tubes that results when the lava hardened around now long gone trees.  That was a long time ago, though, so the second forest referred to in the trail name is the forest that stands there today.  Signs provide information on the geological history of the area as well as on the current forest.

I continued to make my way to Lava Canyon, stopping at all the turnouts along the way.  It reaches an area where the 1980 eruption flattened trees and sent lahars washing down through the area, so the stops soon gave me great views of the south side of Mt. St. Helens.  I took the trail at Lava Canyon, which features a river with some small waterfalls, and part of the trail at Ape Canyon, which highlighted some of the erosion that resulted from the 1980 eruption.  I had been in this area some years ago, so I recognized Ape Canyon - a favorite photo from that earlier trip really captured the layers of rock built up over several eruptions, only to be exposed by the 1980 lahars.

I hit the road, heading for Windy Ridge.  If you get to the Johnston Ridge Viewpoint through the front door (i.e., I-5), the Windy Ridge access would be regarded as the back door.  Both give visitors great views inside the crater left by the 1980 eruption, but Windy Ridge is a lot closer, providing the better views.  It also provides great views of Spirit Lake (still filled with logs from the many trees that were downed by the explosion), Mt. Adams and to a lesser extent Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier.

The monument limits access to the areas flattened in the 1980 eruption and to the crater itself.  Not because of any significant threat of danger.  Rather, it provides scientists with an outstanding opportunity to see how the earth recovers from such a devastating blast.  From most accounts, scientists seem to be surprised by how fast the area is recovering.

Time to head home.  I didn't have any real Mt. Rainier plans other than to drive through the park.  Highways 123 and 410 were open, so I could pass through the eastern side of the park.  I stopped at the White River campground area for some views of the mountain and a couple short hikes, but the road up to Sunrise Point was still closed due to winter snows.

I was home by late afternoon.  All in all a great getaway weekend with stops at three favorite areas, 23 miles of  hiking, and a successful test of my camera.

Souvenirs

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