The Oregon Trail
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"The Pallisades" of the John Day Fossil Beds, Clarno Unit. The smell of sage and juniper was a wonderful compliment to the sculpture of the landscape.
For my birthday this year, I was wonderfully surprised to find out that Terry had planned a very special trip. Wednesday morning, we wound our way through the central Oregon desert all the way to Baker City. It began on highway 197 to Grass Valley. On the way, we encountered the most unique "shoe tree" of all time.
Click on these photos to enlarge! People, over time, began contributing a pair of shoes to hang on this tree! It was a very bizarre sight to find out in the middle of nowhere. And when I say nowhere, the photo below is an indicator of just how wide open the area is.
Shaniko was the first town we came to. Basically a ghost town with some spruced up buildings, Shaniko is a pretty spot in the road if you like history and ghost towns.
On the trail of Fossils. I wanted to climb to the top, but it was just too darned hot!
Castles in the sand. This is a view looking west whilst hiding under the shade of a pine tree.
Shaniko was a very interesting place, and its lonely streets remind me of something right out of the movie "Bad Day at Black Rock". It's very hot in this part of the state, and the old decrepit buildings still remain, worn from the years, but faithful to the town. I can imagine literal ghosts inhabiting some of the old homes and shacks.
There's a wedding chapel that looks to be only somewhat restored, keeping all of its original flavor intact-at least from the outside anyway.
It sits on a scraggly lot on one of the back streets of the town. Shaniko is easily walkable on foot. There are some business up and running, but the place is so remote that one can often wonder how they manage to stay afloat.
On the outskirts of town is an abandoned Texaco station complete with the original logo on the round sign. This was a very pleasing sight in itself.
Everything in the area seems vacant save for the main street of the town, and on a wednesday, most of that was even closed.
 "The Painted Hills" John Day Fossil Beds, Mitchell Site. Click on the images to enlarge them. |
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 105 degrees by 3:00 pm! |
Desert Beauty
We stopped along this section of the John Day River. It was tempting to go in, but there wasn't much access except through mud and shallows. This majestic river flows in and out of this area all over. In fact, the John Day River gets around. It even has a branch near Astoria!
We hit this gorgeous and quite spacious lake later in the afternoon. Clouds were moving in that obscured light giving the lake its unusual countenance. soon, we were at the end of day one of this magnificent escape as we landed in Baker City.