Day 4: Hell's Canyon, Burns & Diamond Crater
I
woke up at 4:15 and started driving towards Hell's Canyon Overlook. The sun
came up around 5:00. We missed the sunrise as we didn't get to the lookout until
6:00 and the road to the the Overlook went through valleys that didn't give
you much of a view of the horizon. It was still a clear day and we took some
nice pictures. The lookout had a large parking lot with picnic grounds overlooking
rthe canyon. There are lots of places to camp
at Hell's Canyon but the season is usually limited to July-Sept because
of weather. We drove to the McGraw Lookout which was a firetower that had 100
steps up to the top. Beware there were lots of splinters in the railings on
the way up, but this is definitely a well-made structure. There was a small
room used for living quarters at the top, which had obviously not been used
for a little while. It was a great view of the mountains. We took some pictures
before going back down. Jacob took a picture of the truck with his camera, but
he was still learning how to use it and didn't push the shutter all the way.
It would have been a great picture, as the truck looked pretty small from way
up there.
We
drove back on Forest Road (FR) 39 and then turned off on FR 66 to and took a
gravel road to Twin Lakes. This area had been burnt by a fire that occurred
about ten years ago. Both lakes were joined by a creek. There was also snow
along the side of the lakes as we let the kids out to play for a little while.
We were looking for Fish Lake when we ran into too much snow on the road and
decided that we'd better turn around and start back. On the way back I took
another side road that went to Duck Lake. This was a quiet place with only a
couple campsites. There was a trail that I believe went around the whole lake.
There were also a lot of bugs here as we only stayed for about 15 minutes. We
continued south on FR 39 until reaching highway 86 and then turned east to go
to some of the dams that are on the Snake River.
We
first went to the Oxbox Dam and drove down by the river where people were fishing
and camping. It was not a great spot but then people are here to catch fish
not enjoy the scenery by their campsite. Next went to Brownlee Dam which was
only thirty miles away. They are so close together because they were built by
two different states in Oregon and Idaho. There were some campsites here that
at least had some trees for shade. We went across the Snake River to go to Hell's
Canyon Dam/Park. This was a paved road along the river that had a small info
center at the dam sight. They also gave boat tours every couple hours. The staff
at the center are very helpful, but the center's highlight is it's juice and
pop machines which were much needed as it was getting quite hot. We drove back
and went west stopping at Copperfield to buy gas and a book on Hell's Canyon.
The service station attendant told us it was 90 in th shade according to his
thermometer. We finally got to Halfway around 1:00 and eat lunch outside at
The Old Churche Bakery. The lunch was ok but the service was a little slow which
is what is expected in a small town. We noted that the courthouse was just a
tiny building in this small town.
We continued west on 86 which had a lot of green valleys and hills. Shawna annouced
that she had to use the bathroom (in the middle of nowhere) when the National
Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center on Flagstaff Hill appeared. We told
the lady at the tollbooth we were just looking for a bathroom for our daughter
and she let us through without paying this time! We drove up a windy paved road
to a large parking lot and walked a little ways up to the museum, which is only
a few years old. We really didn't plan to go through the exhibits, but we couldn't
help ourselves. There were life-size diaramas of settlers, livestock and covered
wagons on the way out west. There were several areas set up with on-going movies
depicting the lives of people on the Oregon Trail based on their diaries, lots
of maps, and artifacts (ie trunks, tools, a violin, . . .), They also had a
giftshop and lots of outdoor exhibits (gold mine, covered wagons, trails leading
to wagon wheel ruts, ...).
Five
miles after the museum on West 86 we came to Baker City. This was a pretty good
size town with a downtown consisting of older buildings, some 4-5 stories. The
area reminded us of California--brown hills, lots of rambler-style homes and
cement overpasses. We turned southwest on Highway 7 and stopped in Sumpter around
5 pm. We took a look around the Sumpter Dredge, a machine used to dredge for
gold. A deer walked by the side of the town's main street. Continuing on we
accidently found an old ghost town by the name of Whitney. This was once a railroad
town, but now had just one working ranch and lots of old dilapidated homes and
barns. One old house had three horses standing around it peering in the windows.
Later we found out there were several other ghost towns, by the names of Granite,
Bourne, and Greenhorn that were built around here by gold prospectors. SR 7
turned into US 26 at Austin. We stopped at the town of John Day to get gas and
food. They had a Taco Bell and McDonald's, but no KFC. The Kam Wah Chung & Co.
Museum looked interesting but we didn't stop. Farther west are the John
Day Fossil Beds, but we turned South on 395. Drove over a steep mountain
pass before reaching a plateau and the town of Seneca. A company here builds
loghouses, some appeared to be no bigger than one room. We drove past the Ponderosa
Guest Ranch, which had a sign that said 'by reservation only.' Next we stopped
at the Idlewild Campground, which was a large campground but very people were
there. We went back about a mile to a gravel road that went to the King Mountain
Lookout. After 2-3 miles the road looked rough and we turned back.
We came into Burns, a well populated town and turned South on
205. 
The
sun was starting to go down and the scenery was changing. The highway climbed
along a ridge and then entered a very flat area known as the Narrows. The Steen
Mountains were in the distance. The highway was straight and slightly elevated
with shallow lakes on each side. There were lots of birds and bugs everywhere,
as this is the Melheur Wildlife Refuge. Sometimes the lakes gave way to more
of a desert senerio. We turned off at the Diamond Crater Auto Tour. These craters
were formed by volanoes. We really couldn't enjoy the scenery. It was 9:30 and
getting darker, so we decided we'd better find a place to pull over for the
night. It took a while to find a place, as there were very few turn-offs. We
were the only ones in the area and finally turned off at the first place we
could find. We were getting worried about getting lost since it was quite dark
out. It was quite a feat to get two kids out of the cab and into the bed of
the truck, while letting in as few bugs as possible.