Explorations with the Ski3pins: Wandering in Oregon – May 2024

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John Day Fossil Beds

We were on our early morning walk on Friday. I asked the Lady, “How ‘bout going to John Day Fossil Beds National Monument? Spring should be a great time to visit. We’ve never visited the area. That’s if we get the awning back up over the deck tomorrow.” The next day, after finishing a multitude of annual Spring chores including the awning, I backed the truck out of the garage to pack up for an early Sunday morning departure. The right rear tire was almost flat. The Lady’s heart sank as I pointed it out to her. “Those are new tires!” she cried.

We pulled the tire off the truck and the Lady grabbed the soapy water to locate the leak. We found nothing until we inspected the valve stem – a slow line of bubbles. I tightened the Schrader valve and the bubbles stopped. The kid who installed the new tires – and valve stems and Schrader valves - must have been working fast. I inspected all the other tires.

“We’ll check the tire in the morning, but I believe all is good.” This did turn out to be the only issue. The tire was fine. We’ve added a 4-way tool and a pack of extra Schrader valves to the tool kit we carry with us.

With our early start Sunday morning, midafternoon we stopped along Abert Lake.

One ancient rock art site at Abert Lake remained on our list to locate – a high shelter site with pictographs. Ripe cheat grass turned us away on a previous attempt. The foxtails and burrs were intolerable.

Our guess on where the site was located was confirmed after a steep climb. The view from this shelter overlooking Abert Lake was vast.

The red pictographs

Several of the pictographs were outlined with white chalk in the mid 1900’s by archeologists, a practice that is no longer done. Rock art should not be touched or altered in any way. At this site, DStretch really helped in bringing out the pictographs. In fact, on this trip it was indispensable.

Without DStretch we would not have seen the hunting scene above the visible larger pictographs.

Ecstatic with our success, we climbed down and back to the truck and began our search for a campsite for the night. This was the weekend of the historic Aurora Borealis display in the lower latitudes. We had no luck at home – kind of a long shot anyway – but perhaps we’d be far enough north in a dark place and the display would last into Sunday night. The weather forecast was for clear skies here. We looked for a high spot on the rim north of Abert Lake with an expansive, unobstructed view to the north.

Wet roads turned us around from our first choice but we found a high lonely spot, far away from anyone else, and made camp. The view to the southwest – the western escarpment of Hart Mountain on the left horizon – was incredible.

The problem in all other directions was the approaching thunderstorm.

It looked like it would pass to the west of us.

Our evening walk before bed was punctuated with distant flashes of lightning and faint peels of thunder.

In was pitch black when we climbed into bed. No stars at all were visible. No northern lights for us. Big rain drops spatted on the roof as we turned off our headlamps for reading and it slowly turned into a steady overnight rain. What would the skies and roads be like in the morning?

We woke to a spectacular morning.

Our long route back out to pavement was slow and rough but unaffected by the overnight rain. Our next destination was the Thomas Condon Visitors Center for the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

The Visitors Center has excellent displays that illustrate the rock formations where fossils are found. It is a must stop when visiting the National Monument but be aware it is closed Tuesday through Thursday. We were lucky we arrived on a Monday. After orienting ourselves and loosely planning out our visit – “We are hiking every trail!” the Lady's requirement – we looked for a campsite for the night.

There are two small BLM campgrounds on the North Fork of the John Day River east of the tiny burg of Kimberly. We liked Lone Pine best especially since we were the only ones there.

We explored after settling into our well-chosen campsite. The river was up with spring snowmelt, the air temperature comfortable, the skies brilliant, and traffic pretty much nonexistent on the road above the campground that runs between Kimberly and Monument. It turned out that early to mid-May was an excellent time to visit here.

We were in the land of the Columbia River Flood Basalts. Layer upon layer were all around us and would be ever present during our wanderings in Oregon.

I’m always curious how place names come about. The next morning, in the light of the rising sun, I believe I may have found the campground’s namesake – a solitary large ponderosa pine on a bench above the river.

On Tuesday we explored the Sheep Rock Unit, and our first stop was the Blue Basin trailhead.

First up was the Blue Basin Overlook Trail, a very nice climb up and around the eroded claystone beds.

From the high point we caught a view of the trail into the Blue Basin.

The views were quite nice.

After circling the Blue Basin, the trail traverses over to a series of switchbacks down to intersect with the Island in Time trail we had seen from above.

Intersecting with the Island in Time Trail, we took it into the heart of the formation. The interpretive signs were excellent in illustrating the fossils that are found here.

Erosion is constantly uncovering new fossils. We did not – with our amateur eyes – spot anything but the Lady was delighted with the color of the sediment in the flowing creek.

Our next stop was the Foree Trailhead and its two short trails.

Views along the Story in Stone Trail.

And the view at the end of the Flood of Fire Trail.

The fossil bearing sedimentary layers were buried by the flood basalts and, much later, exposed by erosion.

Our next stop was the historic Cant Ranch. We enjoyed lunch beneath the trees around the stately ranch house and took our time wandering about the area, with its fields, outbuildings, and orchards. The two trails at the Cant Ranch are - the Sheep Rock Overlook Trail and the River Trail.

We finished off the Sheep Rock Unit by visiting the Mascall Formation Overlook and Picture Gorge.

Picture Gorge is usually just a drive through on Highway 26. We stopped (where legal, parking is prohibited in most places along the highway in the narrow canyon) and took our time here. We knew a secret. Picture Gorge got its name because of several pictograph panels in the canyon. Our search began.

We were surprised that many of the pictographs were on rock faces exposed to the morning sun and, as expected, were faded. Here, once again, DStretch was a valuable aid.