Saturday, June 28: Oakland to Susanville I-80 usual congestion; air smoky from Fairfield on Pause at Auburn for some courthouse photos Very smoky at Yuba Gap & Blue Canyon; burned forest south of highway; better east of Donner Summit Stop at Hallelujah Junction; store may have world's largest selection of Pringles & food bars Found US 395 shoe tree! Is 3 mi N of H Jct; smaller, more approachable than Nevada's on US 50 E of Fallon Honey Lake completely dry this year, unlike last year Very thick smoke around Susanville; see CDF crew boss at gas station: Me: How's it going? CB: Horrible. Red sun disappears behind wall of smoke, well before sunset. Sunday, June 29: Susanville to Summer Lake OR Photograph Lassen County courthouse in morning light Take CA 139 N from Susanville to Adin-Alturas, past Eagle Lake instead of busier 395 Inadvertently chase coyote as he darts in front of car Many flowering plants: prickly poppies, lupine, buckwheat, mule ears, Indian paintbrush Into Alturas and Harold's Frosty for lunch; note absence of big-box stores and chains, except gas stations North of Alturas, enter land of basalt lava-flood mesas with hard rimrock layers over soft sedimentary rock Take West Side Road around Goose Lake - mostly gravel surface, but firm Many birds, including some slender black, with bulbous heads and long narrow curving bills: ibises Old abandoned homestead cabin beside road. take pix for Web page of trip Goose Lake used to drain into Pit River till ~1920. Level has lowered due to use for irrigation; now it is becoming alkaline, unsuitable for irrigation. Nature bats last. Very few vehicles on road, but everybody waves. Head for Lodge at Summer Lake Monday, June 30: Summer Lake to Diamond Cross road to Summer Lake Wildlife Viewing Area; mostly desolate salt pans at this season To Christmas Valley; dry, flat, desolate, with jolly street names like Jingle Bell Road (see web pic) We pass E of town, missing Kitty Litter Road to the K L mine; had no idea. Take Xmas Valley - Wagontire Highway; 40 miles, no traffic, sagebrush everywhere Many basalt-topped escarpments of all sizes Lunch at El Toreo in Burns; good, friendly place Burns is definitely on economic upswing since 2005; more business, fewer empty buildings downtown S on OR 205 E of Burns thru green fields and pasture Stop at Buena Vista Ponds in Malheur Wildlife Refuge; even from ~100 feet above surface, hear constant birdcalls; lively place Check into Diamond Hotel; very nice place, good food, friendly people, but in mosquito country Visit Diamond Craters Outstanding Natural Area; complex geology, must return tomorrow Buy book on "Homesteading the Oregon Desert" at hotel store Wonder if insect repellent loses strength over time; our Cutter seems to have no effect on the mosquitoes Tuesday, July 1: at Diamond Drive S to Frenchglen, then east up Steens Mountain Road closed above Fish Lake; washouts near summit We hike up to Jackman Park (named for author ER Jackman who wrote "The Oregon Desert" with rancher Rube Long, the Sage of Fort Rock) and Whorehouse Meadow; evidently the young ladies of Burns supplemented the family income in summer by coupling with lonely sheepherders, who had little else to spend money on. Practice not officially welcomed, but tacitly accepted; incidentally, Honeymoon Lake is 1/4 mile away. Lunch at Fish Lake; many flowers in streamside meadow. While too early for the road to be open to Steens summit, by then the alpine flowers would be faded and dry Visit Pete French's P Ranch, then proceed to Diamond Craters for more thorough look Almost too thorough; roads poorly marked, nearly get stuck on side trail Take many photos Wednesday, July 2: Diamond to John Day via East Steens Road Up & over Catlow Rim past Roaring Springs to Fields via Long Hollow / Catlow Valley Find only shady spot in Fields, park; skip famous Fields milkshake after big breakfast, but get maps, gas at store Into the desert! Paved road ends, onto gravel surface Pass Borax Lake; was source of mineral ~100 yrs ago when Chinese workers skimmed surface, boiled it down in pots fired by sagebrush wood. Eventually area denuded of fuel; had to shut plant; "may be only known case of economic hardship caused by lack of sagebrush". Towns getting smaller: Frenchglen, Fields, Andrews on gravel road, then just isolated ranches Legal notice on pole at Andrews says Harney County thinking of paving road. We round a curve, reach top of pass; Alvord Desert comes into view, a dry alkali lake ~ 7 x 10 miles; wow; pure brilliant white, absolutely flat, amazing sight Road is 54 miles of gravel, takes 2 hours of slow driving Note to self: car steers like cow when in gravel, look for hard tracks Steens Mtn, gentle upgrade on W side, a sheer 1-mile drop on E side by desert; uplifted fault block Desert gets ~5 inches rain a year: in rain shadow of Cascades, Abert Rim, Steens Mtn Alvord Hot Mineral Springs at edge of desert: metal shed & bench. 6 people bathing in middle of nowhere. Finally back to paved road; whew. Car, selves, covered in dust. Saw 6 cars in 2 hrs in road. Lunch at Burns Dairy Queen N on 395 thru Devine Canyon with ponderosa pine, aspen trees, creek; a change from sagebrush scrub Grant County courthouse hard to photograph, trees close in front; many courthouses have this problem. Probably looked cute with tiny trees when bldg 1st constructed, but decades later... Arrive at John Day, jump in shower to wash dust off. Wash car. Thursday, July 3: John Day to Enterprise Notice lack of German tourists; they usually seem to know about even the most obscure US tourism destinations. Tour Sumpter gold-mining dredge historic park, chat with dredge docent. Lunch in Baker City at Chameleon Cafe; city is much improved from 1993 when most of downtown was boarded-up 100-year-old buildings. Place is humming now. Improvement is like Burns', but more so. Courthouse open, no metal detector, what a pleasure, we tour displays. See an Obama sign in La Grande; must be influence of E O University. Modern windmill farm E of Telocaset; "Elkhorn Valley Wind Farm" Town of Union v. nice; old stone brick buildings. Union High School has main entrance in front, and one on each side with titles carved in stone: one for Boys, one for Girls. Imbler is the "grass seed capital of the world". Dinner in Enterprise at Lear's; waitress works at nearby Terminal Gravity Brewing, explains beer to me at length Courthouse is decked out for 4th; bluegrass concert in progress on lawn Friday, July 4: at Enterprise N from Enterprise on OR 3 W on side road to Flora, pop. ~10-20; also decked out for 7/4 Picturesque old houses, church, school; see Web pix Have seen v few US sedans on trip; US trucks, SUVs, but almost all cars are Japanese brands Candidates for "America's loneliest highway"; any of them would make US 50 in Nevada look like Times Square at rush hour: - US 6 W of Ely NV - US 93 N of Ely - OR 3 N of Enterprise - Xmas Valley to Wagontire highway - can't really count East Steens Road: not paved, not highway Dry-land farming (no irrigation) around Flora seems quite successful, with alfalfa & hay-grass; learn later this has been a wet year Wonder why alfalfa not suitable for human consumption; seems to be only animal feed Stop, turn around at top of dramatic Grande Ronde River canyon; like Grand Canyon only greener Grande Ronde cyn basalt floods were immense: about 16 million yrs ago, they poured out 35 thousand cubic *miles* of lava that ran all the way to the ocean, and covered much of eastern OR and WA. Stop at Rimrock Inn on OR 3 for coffee: "Dining On The Edge", the sign says. On to Joseph; buy books at 2nd Harvest used-bk store, pick up brochure for Fishtrap writers' retreats Land & homes in Wallowa Valley (Enterprise, Joseph) not cheap; want $180K for dumps, subdividing farms for horse owners, gentleman farmers, etc. Saturday, July 5: Enterprise to Ritzville WA Overnight rain has cleared sky; view of Wallowa Mountains in morning light Take OR 82 NW along Wallowa River, then 204 over Blue Mtns from Elgin to Weston, a small but prosperous old town centered on a ConAgra mill. Milton-Freewater has frog statues and a fine old downtown. Meet the charming [rosebud] for lunch in Walla Walla at Merchants Ltd cafe; she shows us around the Whitman College campus and its outdoor sculpture such as Styx, a horse made of bronze driftwood (what? no, really); also Matilda, the bovine a clef in front of library. US 12 to Pasco; another larger windmill farm (hundreds of them) S of Touchet. (Later, hear that most power from Columbia R hydro plants is already committed; hence the windmill farms) Pasco population seems entirely Hispanic; or maybe just all the nabes we drove through; large magnificent incongruous courthouse surrounded by bodegas. North past amber waves of grain (wheat country) to Ritzville, a gem. Not prosperous, but downtown well maintained with street sculpture, historic plaques, a Carnegie Library; and of course a courthouse. We are too early for the annual combine races at the county fairgrounds. Wah. Joan loves the "Wild flowers Quilt Shop and Liquor Store" on main street; it really is. Best Western on freeway in newer part of town (old town is along RR); modern, roomy. Quilts in lobby (but no liquor). Extremely picturesque barn surrounded by wheatfields; take pix in setting and rising sunlight. Sunday, July 6: Ritzville to Wenatchee Drive downtown at dawn to get courthouse in low sunlight; train blocks Division St., so take back way to motel; pass house (Adams & 3rd) with whole yard of whimsical welded sculpture. Nice town; one of my faves so far. Worth visiting even w/o the combine races. Back on the road. N of Fishtrap Lake, highway rises out of flat wheat fields into pine woods SW of Spokane. Spokane biggest city in > a week for us. Courthouse is alas covered in scaffolding; take pix of unclad details. Lincoln County courthouse at Davenport (1897) less ornate than Spokane's; your basic rural civic bldg. Lunch at D-port. Overheard conversation: "I need a stunt double for my wedding in August." Hmm. Many possibilities occur. Surprisingly heavy traffic on hi-line (US 2). I believe [pbs]'s accident was on US 2 just west of Davenport; we must be passing it now. Many many elec wires running from Grand Coulee Dam. Pause in Almira to change drivers. Tiny place, not prosperous, but well kept up with full pots of flowers on every corner. Was on RR line once. Hartline WA even smaller, no paved streets; but again these old brick bldgs; and a humungous grain elevator. Stop at Waterville WA for courthouse and espresso milkshake, both good. Waterville crime report: - a person or persons unknown has been throwing pine cones in the city swimming pool; - someone (same as above?) has been knocking on doors and running away; - the sheriff has been notified. Wenatchee: nice downtown but it fades to sprawl away from center. Dinner at a downtown hotel, top floor, view of river. Nice to see part of country where water and electricity are plentiful. Perhaps California shd no longer be considered a land of abundance but of scarcities. Even gas is cheaper up here, maybe 40 cents a gallon less. And the air is cleaner too. Monday, July 7: Wenatchee to Boardman OR Photograph Wenatchee courthouse in morning light Ephrata - 1917 courthouse - has tree-shaded parking! Flat hot area otherwise. Bumpersticker on Toyota W of Ellensburg: "Ignore the meds; think for yourself". Ellensburg's cowgirl on welcome sign looks like Well's [ssabrina] or St. Pauli Girl; take pic to compare Ellensburg courthouse undistinguished, but nearby downtown a treasury of old buildings Visit Clymer Art Museum. John Clymer was artist in mold of Norman Rockwell; did covers for SatEvePost, but mostly for Field & Stream, Leatherneck (WWII Marines') magazines Yakima; see Wm O Douglas Federal building. Prosser: classic 1926 courthouse; buy jam, salsa, chutney at Chukar Cherries. Instead of taking I-82 southeast to Umatilla, we go straight S on WA 221 through Horse Heaven Hills to Columbia R. Much better choice IMHO. River Lodge at Boardman v. pleasant, except restaurant service glacial at dinner. Decide to breakfast in room from car cooler, else might not leave before noon. Tuesday, July 8: Boardman to Hood River Queen Of The West stern-wheeler passes upriver past our window in morning. Big circuit of north central Oregon today; W on I-84 to Heppner Junction, then south Ione has small houses, immense grain elevator. Why so tall and narrow? Answer A: gravity feed Answer B: prevent spontaneous combustion Heppner destroyed by creek flood in 1903, since rebuilt. Symbol is shamrock for its Irish heritage. Overheard in Heppner diner, Sweet Productions Ice Cream Parlour; Jodi Chapa, owner (where they deep-fry excellent light-as-a-feather donuts for you on order, BTW): "I feel so sorry for Darrell; he finally got his shed built and then he died." Condon has attractive 1955 courthouse, a rarity; town named for a clergyman-palaeontologist. Follow old aband'd RR track bed S from Condon past massive basalt cliffs. See tower of smoke to west; uh-oh. Into Fossil, pop. ~300, 1901 courthouse Lunch at Goldie's in Shaniko; nice people there. N of Shaniko on US 97, 2 more shoe trees, 1 big & 1 little; that makes 3 this trip. "Obama for president" sign on fence N of Kent. Count so far this trip: Obama: 3 signs Ron Paul: 17 John McCain: 0 Visit Moro and The Dalles: latter has statue of antelope on lawn, dedicated to all who "steadfastly resisted Rajneesh takeover of Wasco County". No time so far to edit pix, just prune obvious blunders; days busy from start to end. To Mesquitery BBQ for dinner in uptown Hood River; park behind same car as last year, with stickers - Where am I going and what am I doing in this handbasket? - Born OK the first time - I like poetry, long walks on the beach, and poking dead things with a stick Order "boneless beef ribs"; is that a contradiction? Good, anyway. Wednesday, July 9: Hood River to Eugene See crosses on highway at sites of fatal accident; what if a Jew was killed? Should atheists get a zero sign, pagans a broom or pentagram? Oregon City urban, tense after touring countryside; glad to get out of Portland area and freeways. Hillsboro likewise; half the city seems to be employed by law enforcement. Take OR 47 S to McMinnville; Willamette Valley seems to be in throes of gentrification; grain fields alternate with golf courses, wineries, dog grooming services, tasting rooms, manicured yards. Wonder if fields are Astrowheat, rolled up at night. Sign of the times, N of McMinnville: "Poverty Bend Road; 1 mile to Country Gardens Nursery". McMinnville has 1964 courthouse, & large new all-concrete "correctional center" behind. Bleahh. Why don't they call the jail a spa while they're at it? Polk County: Dallas courthouse a delight from 1900 Cafe on courthouse square (The Courthouse Cafe) very nice place, friendly. Dallas newspaper is the Itemizer-Observer. Fruit stand outside Corvallis says it is "open Monday through Sunday"; wonder if there isn't a simpler way of saying that.. Surprise; phone messgs waiting for dinner in Eugene with Joan's cousin (lives in Springfield), and brother & wife (weekending in Yachats, returning to Pocatello). La Quinta Inn at Eugene expensive, rooms moldy, rancid; not recommended. Thursday, July 10: Eugene to Yreka CA Pass through Roseburg, Grants Pass, Medford, photograph courthouses Lunch in Ashland on creek; love Lithia Park. Rest of city, maybe not so much. Ashland filled with v. expensive cars: Jaguars, Hummers, BMWs everywhere. Victim of own success? Yreka has old historic downtown; 1st 2 storefronts are "Izzie's Tattoo Parlor" with a baby stroller just inside the window, and a head shop. Dinner at good Mexican restaurant (Lalo's) with velvet portraits of bandidos on wall. Friday, July 11: Yreka to Oakland Up early to catch Siskiyou County cthse in dawn light; then I-5 south. Stop at Shasta Lake store, pick up tchotchke, 1st of trip: beer can holder in form of rainbow trout. Home! 3387 miles, 1535 photographs later. Must do laundry.