Eastern Oregon Travels
Sunday, September 16, 2007
We just returned from a fabulous vacation touring the east side of Oregon. But, before vacation, we spent a couple of busy, busy weeks working. I tried a plaintiff’s case and lost. That was a big bummer. The vacation literally started the day after I received the verdict. Good timing. While I was preparing for that trial, Mike worked a lot too. We both really needed the vacation.
Saturday
We woke up last Saturday, packed up the BMW and started driving east without knowing where we would stay that night. While in the Gorge, we decided to check out the fossil hills near John Day. When we drove through Moro, I saw a sign for the county courthouse and made Mike stop so I could check it out. Then, we continued south and stopped at one of the fossil beds. We did a short hike and looked for fossils. The scenery was beautiful- lots of rock and blue skies. We saw some fossils of plants, which were pretty cool.
Then, we continued through Antelope and into Fossil for lunch. Fossil was a small town, but it was cute. We had lunch at a mediocre restaurant but the waitress was really nice. Mike pointed out a painting on the wall and asked if I liked it. It was of quail and an old fence. I really liked it and Mike asked if I wanted it. Eee! We literally bought a painting off the wall of a restaurant! It was only $100 and we later discovered that was a deal.
Next stop was another fossil bed/scenery hike. It was really pretty too and a little different. The rock was green. We laughed, joked around and had a good time on that hike too. By the time we got to the museum, it was just after 4:00 p.m. and the museum had just closed. We were nearing our first real decision point – do we turn west and head towards Mitchell where there was a state park or do we go east into John Day. We were a little short of gas and hadn’t packed any food. We asked the ranger whether there was food and gas in Mitchell and she hesitantly said “Sometimes there’s gas. There is food.” We weren’t encouraged by her response, so we turned east.
Just before John Day was a cute little town that had a nice, state park with camping sites. There were still 3-4 sites available, so we decided to head into John Day to buy food for dinner. When we returned, loaded with hotdogs and chili, all the camping sites were taken. Bummer. We returned to John Day to find a hotel. Unfortunately, the hotels in John Day are rather old and sketchy. Also, there was apparently a motorcycle rally somewhere nearby because many of the hotels were full. When we pulled into the Best Western, there were bikes everywhere, with people milling about outside with their barbeques. It was obviously going to be a loud night. We passed on the hotel and continued east.
By this time, it was getting near dusk. We entered Prairie City and Mike saw there was a campground just inside the city. It wasn’t much of a campground, but there was room for us. We decided to pick a spot in the back of the campground, which ended up to be a poor decision. While trying to sleep, we learned our campsite was by a fairly busy road and when cars turned onto the road, their headlights flashed directly into our tent. We didn’t get much, if any, sleep that night. Not only was it loud and the lights kept flashing us, but it was bitter cold. Luckily, we had thrown an extra sleeping bag into the car just-in-case. We both slept in our clothes and were still freezing.
Sunday
We woke early the next morning and got into the car just to warm up. Even though we had bought coffee and could make it on our stove, we were way too cold to stay outside. We left our tent and drove in search of coffee. Nothing was open in Prairie City (it was just after 5:30 a.m.), so we went back to John Day where we knew there was a McDonalds that would likely open around 6:00 a.m. Luckily, there was a local restaurant that was open and we didn’t have to eat at McYuck-Yucks. The restaurant was good. I had huckleberry pancakes, which were wonderful. The hot coffee was fabulous!
We returned to our campsite, tore down the tent and quickly hit the road. Next stop – the ghost town of Whitney. There wasn’t too much to see there, except for a sign that said the speed limit was enforced by a 30-30. Yikes! After a brief look at the old buildings, we went to Baker City. We took a photo of the courthouse there. Since our tour book didn’t mention much about Baker City, we continued on to Anthony Lake. There, we hiked over 8 miles that took us over two passes. The hike was really beautiful. We definitely have not done much hiking this summer because we were huffing and puffing up the passes. When we returned to our vehicle, my back and the top of my pants were soaked. I had carried the water jug in my backpack and it leaked. As I changed my shirt in our car, I accidentally gave the neighboring car owners a show.
We decided to continue forward instead of returning to Baker City for the night. We drove to LaGrande and stayed at the same Best Western where we stayed a couple years ago. Nothing too exciting about it, except that we were looking forward to a dip in the hotel hot tub, but it was closed. We at least were able to sleep.
Monday
I went for a 4 mile run around LaGrande early Monday morning. I definitely felt the altitude and lack of sleep. I grabbed Mike some McD’s on my way back to the hotel. I showered, we packed and I grabbed some continental breakfast to go. We continued along the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway towards Joseph. As we passed through Enterprise, we found the Terminal Velocity brewery. It was a little too early to stop in, plus they were closed. When we got to Joseph, we thought it looked very similar to Sisters. We toured the main street and shopped.
Then, we drove out to Wallowa Lake, which we absolutely loved. It was so beautiful! We walked around the waterfront on the far end of the lake by the lodge. We watched as the rangers towed the dock away from the marina – apparently, they had just closed it for the season. Mike tried to photograph some camera-shy monarch butterflies on the beach. We were getting a little tired, so we decided to go back into Joseph for lunch. We hadh at a pub, which was excellent though we both ate far too much. Not sure what to do next, we decided to return to the lodge-side of the lake and investigate the lodge and the cabins around the lake. We stopped at a rental place and asked about the cabins. A cabin for 2 people was only $70 but they also had new condos for $125/night. The condos had a washing machine and dryer, a jacuzzi tub and a patio. Once we saw the condo, we were sold – and, we decided to stay for two nights. We got a cute gift bag for staying two nights, including huckleberry chapstick which we sorely needed. There was only 4 condos in one building and there were no other renters at the time. Plus, there were three deer (mom and two fawns) that had decided the front of the condos was a nice place to lay in the shade. We shopped at the nearby gift store, where I made some impulse purchases aided by Mike’s encouragement. Then, we were lazy the rest of the day. That night, we had the rest of the hotdogs and chili while watching one of our TV shows.
Tuesday
I went for a run Tuesday morning along trails behind the lake. Most of the trails seemed to go up, so I cut my run short. We had breakfast in Joseph and returned to our condo to rest our full bellies. (Not a very healthy vacation.) We hiked to a water fall and, on the way, saw a chipmunk with his cheeks almost as full as they could get and yet he continued to shove stuff in them. It was hilarious. We rested for a bit after the hike, then dared the gondola. It rose 3700′ up the mountain. I freaked. Mike thought I was hilarious and kept taking my picture. Eventually, the gondola got to the top. We hiked around the top of the mountain (8150′) and watched the playful chipmunks and birds. The views were breathtaking – it’s just too bad there was a slight haze. I anticipated the ride down the gondola was going to be miserable. When we were in line for the next car, the operator asked if we were the couple that got stuck in the gondola on the way up. That didn’t make me happy. Luckily, Mike and I sat on the same side, facing down. The gondola tipped back just a bit, so I could only see the opposite seat, unless I leaned over. As long as I didn’t look out the sides, I couldn’t see how high we were – I could just see the lake in the distance. There were a couple scary moments when I did look down, but the ride wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
That night, we had dinner at the pub again and did a little more shopping. Joseph has a strong artist presence and we went into a gallery to check it out. Yikes – the art was beautiful but the prices were really high. We definitely got a deal with our quail painting.
Wednesday
We decided it was time to move on, so we had breakfast in Joseph and then continued east along the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway. The road twisted and turned and both of us felt a little nautious as we pulled out on an overlook over Hells Canyon. I don’t think we fully appreciated the view because we felt ill and there was still a haze lingering over the canyon. We drove for most of the day. When our bellies told us it was lunchtime, we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere between Baker City and John Day. We found a large pull-out and ate leftover pizza along the side of the road.
We pulled into Burns in time to find a hotel and get dinner. We ate at a very good steak house where they raised their own beef, and had three decades of awards to show how good their beef was. The waitress was new and obviously didn’t drink. When we emptied our pitcher, she half-asked, half-told us that she wasn’t allowed to serve any more alcohol to us. It was like she didn’t know the rules. It didn’t really matter because we were done anyway. Mike really thought it was weird.
The spa worked in this Best Western and we took a dip in the spa and in the pool. Then, it was bedtime.
Thursday
We were starting to get tired and we didn’t have quite the hustle that we did at the beginning of the trip. We did check out of the hotel early because we wanted to get to the Wildlife Preserve to see the birds. We grabbed breakfast on the go (McD’s – yuck!) and headed out to the Preserve. At the Ranger Station, we saw a number of cute little birds, a family of quail, a bunny and some more deer. The quail were fun to watch. Then, we drove on the dirt road in the middle of the Preserve. We scared some pheasants and ducks, saw a type of sandpiper that was getting his breakfast in the mud and saw more deer. Unfortunately, there weren’t many other birds to see. The road was dusty and bumpy and slow-going. Mike suggested I go for a run, which I did. He took photos of me running and drove along behind me. After a couple of miles, I apparently quit paying attention to my feet and took a header. I must have tripped over a rock and didn’t even catch myself. The left side my by leg, elbow and both hands were bleeding and dirty. Mike zoomed up and took out the first aid kit. Talk about service. Needless to say, I was done running. We finished the road and took one other detour to see more birds at another location in the Preserve. We were quite tired, so we didn’t drive all the way to the south end of the Preserve. Though, we did see some ratty-looking pelicans on our way back out. We returned to Burns for another lunch (McD’s again – disgusting) and headed back home.
Friday
We made it to Sisters the night before and stayed at Mom and Dad’s. We left Friday morning to return home.
We had a fabulous vacation! I was even able to convince Mike to go to the Beaverton 50th Anniversary Parade on Saturday morning. We didn’t chase after the candy like the hundreds of children around us, but we still seemed to collect a handful. I thought it was fun. Mike thought it was something he had to deal with.
