We arrived at
Airstream Adventures Northwest bright and
early. The folks there have done a beautiful job and Dimples looks all smooth
shiny and polished. After taking care of
business (which was minimal due to the excellent service provided by Airstream
Adventures and our Insurance peeps over at Progressive) we hooked up and headed
off to
Dayville, Oregon.
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| Sheep Rock Fossil |
It is a fairly long drive over the Cascade Mountain
passes, circling around Mount Hood and entering a land of harsh and exquisite
beauty. You may have heard that Oregon contains the most diverse unique
geologic environment in North America, but once you actually travel east of the
Cascades, unique takes on a whole new dimension. We are awe struck around each turn and over
each rise. This is geology on steroids, super ninja geology, f-ing awesome
geology…
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| Fish House Inn |
We stay at the
Fish House Inn and RV Park. We chose this place because it is
conveniently located eight miles east of the
Sheep Rock Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Once we arrived we discovered what a true gem
this place really is. Owner/operator
Mike Smith offers the gamut of lodging: a private cottage, rooms in a great old
craftsman bungalow, tent camping on manicured lawns and a six-space full service
RV park. They provide super clean laundry,
restrooms, showers and Wi-Fi. It is located
right in the center of Dayville, a small-small town; there is nothing urban
about this place. Within walking
distance are a café, the town mercantile, the post office and the gas station
with mini-mart. All of the folks are genuinely friendly; it feels like small
town America at it’s best. We feel like we are staying in a rich uncle’s back
yard kicking back a few beers and petting his Golden Retrievers Zoe and Zander.
Maybe it’s the limited number of spaces, but the guests
here are friendlier than any place we’ve visited so far. Everyone has tips and suggestions of places
to stay and sites to see, so we end up making changes to our next few weeks
itinerary. We share meals and cocktail hours with Frank and Colleen from
Kennewick, Washington who cook delicious Dutch Oven short ribs with roasted
apples and potatoes and later in the week with Vic and Diane from up by Glacier
Park in Montana who treat us to really tasty Buffalo burgers. We hope to visit
both of these couples in the future when we travel through their neck of the
woods.
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| Dayville Merc. |
Foraging is pretty much limited to stocking up at Rays Market in
Prineville, picking up items at the Dayville Mercantile, the Southport Mini-Mart
and a trip to
Thomas Orchards in Kimberly where we gathered some fresh picked
peaches, cherries, Triple H Ranch artisan Cotswold cheese and Summer Sausage.
We spend the week exploring the area, especially the
Sheep Rock and
Painted Hills Units of the
John Day Fossil Beds. At Sheep Rock we visit the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center, in the
shadow of Sheep Rock, where we see fossils from all three units of the
monument. The fossils are from the age of mammals, after the demise of the
dinosaurs. We hike the short trails around the center and up the road at
the Cant Ranch. In the Blue Basin area we hike the easy Island in Time Trail
and the not-so-easy Blue Basin Overlook Trail.
We stop at Cathedral Rock and have to push our jaws up shut. The trails
in the Painted Hills unit grant outstanding views. Everything here is
otherworldly, it is unlike any landscape we have ever seen. In lieu of words:
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