Oregon - Day 21 - Picture Gorge, Painted Hills, Prineville Reservoir

Prineville Reservoir State Park, near Prineville

Saturday, 21 May 2022

today's route

As I left John Day, I saw a sign saying it was the Home of the Greatest Timber Trucks.  That's what it said.

And a road sign said I was continuing on the Journey Through Time Oregon Scenic Byway.  I was driving through farming country, with hills and lots of curves in the road.  The John Day River wove a curvy path alongside the road, which crossed it many times.

A homemade sign told me "BIDEN ENABLES TERRORIST" (singular).

I came to the town of Mt. Vernon, where I saw proof that this was a farming town when I passed the Mt. Vernon Grange, which meets on the 2nd Friday of the month.

I've been seeing lots of iris blooming all over this area.

At the town of Dayville (again named for John Day), they say "Our Fossils Are Friendly."  Unusual little town - it looked like an Old West town for tourists, except I think it might be real.  The City Hall looked barely big enough for a desk, but the town's barely big enough to need a city hall.

Then a sign told me I was coming to Picture Gorge, and that it was part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.  Also that the next 2 miles would be a winding road with no shoulder.  Nice to know in advance.  I hadn't heard of this place and wasn't at all prepared for it.

What I found were steep rock walls that I later learned were 1,300' high, covered with grasses except where they were too steep to hold soil.  The river runs between those walls, and the road runs next to the river.  After a short time of driving in this canyon, I felt almost suffocating.  Strange feeling I don't remember having at other gorges and canyons I've visited.  It was a truly unusual and spectacular trip down through time - the time it took to create those enormous walls.

I found 2 web pages that explained different aspects of this gorge and where it came from.  Among other things, they say it's called Picture Gorge because early American Indians drew pictures on the walls.  These two may look like the same information but actually include a lot of different stuff in each.   https://www.waymarking.com/Picture-Gorge  and   https://www.waymarking.com/Picture-Gorge-Basalts  

Soon after that I came to Keyes Creek Summit, elev. 4,369', and stopped in a large pull-out area just before the start of a 6% grade.

This scene across the road from where I was parked
is like much of what I was driving through.

The view from the pull-out area - not at all what I'd expected to see here.  I thought
I'd see desert, but if that's what this country was, then Oregon's desert isn't like others.

Actually, from here on, the land looked like hillsides that had deserts slapped onto them, but with riparian influences.  In other words, as in these photos, dry land that was getting water from somewhere to support a lot of plant life.

Aside from Picture Gorge, the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument lies in 2 main sections.  One is called the Sheep Rock Unit, and that's where most of the easy-to-see fossils are found.  The other, that I wanted to visit, is called the Painted Hills Unit, for obvious reasons.

This hill was on the left side of the next one.

The couple in the foreground shows the size.

I was intrigued with the way these bands of color looked like someone had smeared the wet paint. 
This may look like sand, but it's rock.

There's a private farming operation in the middle of this monument, and some of the hills had bright green fields stretched in front of them, which made quite a contrast.

Back out on the main road, a sign said we'd reached the Ochoco National Forest.  The road climbed for miles (and the AC doesn't work when we're going uphill), and up on the hilltops I saw many trees downed.  I guessed there'd been a bad storm because it didn't look like a fire had knocked them down.  Lots of trees gone, though.

At Ochoco Pass Summit, elev. 4,720', I found several of those "sno-parks" and Forest Service campgrounds.  

Suddenly, from sunshine it began to rain.  But I could see Ochoco Lake's water level was way down, so it's hard to complain when the rain's so obviously badly needed.

And then we came to Prineville, elev. 2,881', meaning we'd descended a lot of feet in a fairly short time.  Prineville, pop. 11,042, has a sign saying, "Welcome to Central Oregon's 'Oldest City.'"  They put "Oldest City" in quotes themselves.

I was nearly out of cash and had intended to stop at the bank here, only to remember banks aren't open on Saturday afternoons.  I found a park for the dogs to walk around in a bit, and then we turned south for the 15 miles to the reservoir.

There were chipmunks running around all over the campground.  When I was walking the dogs around the camping area, I passed several guys sitting together, drinking beer, and I heard one guy say, "Run, Alvin, run!"

We had a good campsite for Dext, who was never at a loss for things to look at: passing by were lots of dogs, lots of people, lots of chipmunks.  At least he didn't get bored like he often does.