A Trip to John Day

The morning dawned with a spectacular sunrise edtion for the girls and me to enjoy on our morning walk, although I think they are more into smells than sights. We decided to drive up to John Day to further check the area out. It's about a 65 mile trip north of Burns on Hwy 395 over a pass of 5154 feet and through a couple of great canyons. You come to Canyon City first, which is aptly named because it is in a ........ Gold was discover there in 1862 and it was a boomtown until about 1880. Not much evidence of mining is left. You have to keep a sharp eye out for tailings, etc. A couple of neat antique shops, though. We bought some cool stuff for the homestead house at the Sod House Ranch. Hit a couple more shops in John Day, had lunch and then stopped at Skiens, which is a yarn, wool, spinning store in JD. Teresa is the owner and very enjoyable. She has provided me with information and hints to help me get going with spinning. It is her ram, The Brick, who provided my first wool to spin on my drop spindle. If you are ever in Canyon City, stop by here store. It's right on Hwy 395 across from the library.

Travels around Burns

On Thursday of last week we did our usual trip to Burns for groceries and while we were there we decided to drive out north and west of town into what are the Blue Mountains. Traveling through miles of gravel roads, past hunting camps set up with more gear than the US Army on manuevers, past stands of Aspens changing from their summer colors, past deer looking at us asking us not to tell the hunters where we saw them, in and out of rain and snow showers, happy to have a warm, dry vehicle to travel in, it made for another pleasant day in the country of eastern Oregon.

Up Steens Mt. Again

It was time to go back to Steen’s Mountain to view the fall colors. We took the wild and steep south route on the way up. From South Steens Campground it is no more than a half mile to the sign warning you about the roughness of the road. From the sign to the end of exciting part of the trip it is about 5 miles but it takes you about an hour to negotiate it and you don’t mind one bit. You are too busy watching where you are going and checking out the scenery. We had lunch in a shady spot overlooking the Big Indian Gorge. Great place to sit, relax, and take in the scenery.
After lunch we reached the summit and spent 30 minutes looking over the edge. It was sunny and the wind was not too bad so we could enjoy ourselves. Saw no bighorn sheep, though. I hope to see some one day.
About a mile or two down from the summit we turned onto a small road that I had heard of and started for an area of old cabins that sit on the rim of Little Indian Canyon. I had heard of it and wanted to check it out. The road was a narrow dirt track that headed east. There were a few rocks that I had to avoid but we had no troubles. Then the road turned south and started to wind downhill toward the canyon. The road became rougher and even narrower as it dropped into the Aspens. Their trunks were all twisted and scared from the snows and winds of winter and were starting to turn color. It was getting interesting both for the flora and the road. I was starting to get nervous about the height of the rocks and their relationship to the oil pan of the Suburban. I put the tires on some of them to avoid doing any dragging. My passengers were more in favor of turning around than discovery so we stopped and scouted a place to reverse direction. I backed up the road about ¼ mile to a place that I could “gee haw” the rig around and head back up the way we came. Another day………….