natjwest
Contributors
The hardened road warrior daughter and I took the other member of our family on a few day trip last week. We left Portland via I-84, past The Dalles, then 97 to 206 to Condon.
Brief halt in Condon with not much to do. We had thought about hitting a little museum there but apparently mid-day Sunday late in September isn't the right time to show up. Oh and deer hunting season had just begun, so I think everyone was out anyway. We jetted down highway 19 to Wheeler County High School in the little town of Fossil, OR to go fossil hunting.
Found a bunch of 33 million year old fossils. It was so easy to find them that we tossed a bunch aside looking for "museum pieces".
Camped along the John Day River at Muleshoe campground. A couple other hunters in camp but they were pretty quiet, no complaints.
Woke up in the morning and took Girds Creek Rd to Twickenham. That's one of those little po-dunk places like Petrolia, CA where you wonder how people live that far away from everything. I saw a big house with a big plane-sized garage and a dirt runway. That must be how they live that far away. From there to the Painted Hill Unit of the John Day National Monument and the Painted Hills Overlook.
Then Painted Cove trail in the same park
Then on to the little town of Mitchell, OR. I think we went into every commercial establishment there: the post office, the junk shop, the "antiques" shop, the general store, the gas station. The two restaurants were closed, I think because of hunting season. The bear who lives in the cage in town was away on vacation.
Past a shoe tree on hwy 26.
And into Sheep Rock Unit of the John Day Natl Mon. We hiked into the Blue Basin
And saw some weird mud stuff
Then found a pretty good campsite along the South Fork John Day River Road
On the way home the next day we stopped in Post, OR for the requisite picture
All in all a good trip. No vehicle malfunctions, no complaints from the new road tripper other than how uncomfortable the mattresses are. The camper fridge finally gave up the ghost, I'll get an Edgestar before our next trip, scheduled for December.
Brief halt in Condon with not much to do. We had thought about hitting a little museum there but apparently mid-day Sunday late in September isn't the right time to show up. Oh and deer hunting season had just begun, so I think everyone was out anyway. We jetted down highway 19 to Wheeler County High School in the little town of Fossil, OR to go fossil hunting.
Found a bunch of 33 million year old fossils. It was so easy to find them that we tossed a bunch aside looking for "museum pieces".
Camped along the John Day River at Muleshoe campground. A couple other hunters in camp but they were pretty quiet, no complaints.
Woke up in the morning and took Girds Creek Rd to Twickenham. That's one of those little po-dunk places like Petrolia, CA where you wonder how people live that far away from everything. I saw a big house with a big plane-sized garage and a dirt runway. That must be how they live that far away. From there to the Painted Hill Unit of the John Day National Monument and the Painted Hills Overlook.
Then Painted Cove trail in the same park
Then on to the little town of Mitchell, OR. I think we went into every commercial establishment there: the post office, the junk shop, the "antiques" shop, the general store, the gas station. The two restaurants were closed, I think because of hunting season. The bear who lives in the cage in town was away on vacation.
Past a shoe tree on hwy 26.
And into Sheep Rock Unit of the John Day Natl Mon. We hiked into the Blue Basin
And saw some weird mud stuff
Then found a pretty good campsite along the South Fork John Day River Road
On the way home the next day we stopped in Post, OR for the requisite picture
All in all a good trip. No vehicle malfunctions, no complaints from the new road tripper other than how uncomfortable the mattresses are. The camper fridge finally gave up the ghost, I'll get an Edgestar before our next trip, scheduled for December.
