Oregon Outback, Scenic Byway Thursday, 7/27/17

Thursday:  Travel day.  Time for us to begin our trip home.  We left Bend, after gassing up at an Arco, buying a couple of grocery items at a store, and checking our map ... which showed several options to get to Nevada City.  After some debate, we decided to head south via Hwy 97, which turns into Hwy 395 in California.  (395 is the major highway on California's eastern perimeter, although it's usually only two lanes.)  This would be new territory for us, oh boy!

Just south of Bend, we tried to get in to see Lava Land's lava crusts, but the ranger dudette at the entrance gave a scornful glance at Tergel and said, "You wouldn't be able to get THAT in there."  I smiled, said, thanks, and pulled out.  We skipped Lava Lands completely. 

And in the process, we had more time to explore Oregon's fascinating outback.  Heck, we didn't even know Oregon had an outback, but we were here, let's explore!  We stopped to eat our sandwiches at a wide parking area, corner of Hwy 97 and the Fort Rock Road, with the above kiosk.  OK, we turned off the highway -- we'd take a peek at Fort Rock.  

Within a few minutes, we spotted this Uluru-looking anomaly in the middle of the high desert, like a desert mirage.  We pointed in wonder; what is it?  Turns out Fort Rock is NOT a fort, but it is, in fact, the rock you see.  The closer we got, the bigger it got.

From the other side, it's caved in.  We continued on to the park entrance.

This is Fort Rock State Monument.  In simple terms, it's an old "tuff ring" set in what was a shallow sea in prehistoric times. Sagebrush bark sandals found in a nearby cave are the oldest ever discovered, dating back around 9,000-13,000 years.  From Wikipedia: The ring is about 4,460 feet in diameter and stands about 200 feet high above the surrounding plain.  Its name is derived from the tall, straight sides that resemble the palisades of a fort. It used to be several hundred feet higher, but has eroded over the millennia.  Gosh, you never know what amazing sights are around the corner unless you get on the road less traveled.  Jimmy and I are very fortunate that we have the opportunity and time to explore America.

As seen from the air.

I hiked up a bit to look into the bowl, blown away by the size of it.  Way down there is Tergel with little Smartie, parked dead center, pretty much by itself, aside from the camp host (honest).  You can see there's not much else around.  I expect the host might get lonesome in the outback.  Can you find Jimmy in his aqua-blue shirt? 

Don't know if you can see white spotting on the rocks (not the square plaque).  It took us a few minutes before the light came on -- guano.  We asked the camp host, who was a friendly, helpful fella, if crows or ravens were responsible.  Nope, nesting Peregrine Falcons.  And he's been listening for weeks to the babies calling for their dinner.  He also figured they'd be fledging soon.  We didn't see any flying, darn it.

We wandered the outback, me driving Tergel, dawdling along like I had all day, which I did. The speedometer rarely got above 50, but I didn't want to miss anything.  We had the roads to ourselves, anyway, our favorite way to drive.  The heady scent of sage kept us company along this stretch.  That cloud mass looked ominous and I remarked to Jimmy that I didn't want to get caught in that thing.

At Summer Lake, we pulled in to Ana Reservoir RV Park and set up camp.  The lake is on one side, with a long, tall ridge on the other, Winter Ridge, a thousand feet up.  Summer lake is bordered with green grasses and sages, and the whole picture is quite scenic.  It seemed like a good place to stop for the night, and it was early enough that we could scout around.  Not sure if the photo above is a former church or school, but I liked the way it looked.  This is John C Fremont country ... he was exploring here in Dec. 1843.

Then there's this, looking even more ominous.

I couldn't get a good picture, although I tried.  Etched onto the black rock was this white rock (I guess) high on the ridge.  It looked like a village had been carved on the rock, in the fashion of Mesa Verde or Canyon de Chelly.  Or painted.  Eventually, we gave up trying to figure it out.  Strange, but can you almost feature a white village?  

Ahh, Out and About and on the reservoir.  Beautiful.

Ospreys had nests nearby.

This guy seemed to be using the power pole as a lookout.

That big, bad storm moved off to the northeast and spared us.  After dinner, however, Jimmy looked out the window and saw what looked like rain sheeting down and closing in. A reasonable assumption given the clouds.  No rain fell.  Nothing happened.  The weird cloud seemed stationary and then sort of evaporated.  A short time later, I noticed a really fine dust, like grit, on my keyboard, then the table, etc.  Too bad I had all the windows open.  This cloud was not rain, but dust stirred up by winds.  Another guess, but probably correct.  Never saw anything like it.

The next morning we continued rolling along south on Hwy 97, between ridges and mountains.  Lots of alfalfa fields in these parts.  With the windows open, the scent of freshly-mown alfalfa sailed into our noses ... kind of pleasant.  Bucolic.  Above, two young bucks were helping themselves to the alfalfa!

Somewhere along the way, in a depression between mountains, was an acre or three of gorgeous Black-eyed Susans.  We'd seen the massive clouds, so we knew rain was falling somewhere in the Outback.  Looks like enough fell here to spark a mega bloom. Just my luck!  I stopped Tergel in the highway (nobody coming, either direction) to snap a pic. Wheeee -- made my day!

If you have the chance to drive along Oregon's Outback, I hope you'll do it.  It was great fun.  We could easily return to see more.

Tomorrow, I'll wrap it up.

8/27-28-29, 2010, Custer St Park area, SD

Oh my gosh, there's plenty to do here! We packed as much in as we could, starting with a treasure buried beneath the Black Hills. Jewell Cave is a dazzling labyrinth that twists and turns for miles and is listed as the second longest caving system in the world w/ more than 150 miles of mapped passageways, with a constant 52° temp. The scenic tour is a ½ mile, 1-½ hour loop, on a lighted path that involves climbing up and down more than 700 stairs (way too many!). Remind me to take my own flashlight next time we're in a cave!

  

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The next day we drove (Nat’l Scenic Byway) Iron Mountain Road with its pigtails (which Smartie liked!) to Mount Rushmore Nat’l Memorial, which we viewed like any tourist. We visited the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum’s, studio and walked the Presidential Trail, with its eye-catching views of George, Tom, Ted and Abe. Did you know their heads are about 60’ tall? Approx 400 people worked at Mount Rushmore during the carving process from Oct 1927 to Oct 1941 and, tho the work was extremely dangerous, no lives were lost. Impressive any way you look at it …. 

 

That afternoon we donned bike shorts for a 22-mile R/T ride on the George S. Mickelson Trail, a 109-mile Rails-to-Trails South Dakota gem. We caught the trail from our campsite and rode south thru Black Hills natural beauty. Wow! That day runners were also on the trail competing in the Lean Horse Hundred and Half-Hundred Mile run. We saw some (crazy?) men and women doing their best, many still looking good, others looking like they wished they'd never begun!  Talk about grueling. Regardless, we enjoyed a great ride on a Hall of Fame trail.

 

Jimmy letting runners jog past at their Mile 65.

 

Beautiful sky - which gave way to black clouds that cut our ride short.

Sign we saw along the trail. 

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The following day was more sedentary – a ride on the 1880 Train from Hill City to Keystone. On the BHCR #104, a 2-6-2T steam train built in 1926, we puffed up Tin Mill Hill (I think I can, I think I can …), past old mining operations, Echo Valley, and Mile Post 8 where the great 1972 flood swept away the tracks and many historic places killing over 200 people throughout the area, and on into Keystone.  We ate lunch in Keystone. I think the train blew its whistle (two longs, a short, another long) 19 times – coming and going! What a fun ride, with more fine Black Hills scenery.

 

 

In Keystone, we decided to take the Big Thunder Gold Mine tour, which was kinda depressing. The mine was discovered in 1892 by two German immigrant miners, W.B. Krupp and J.A. Engle. They migrated across America separately, but met in Keystone. Their common language connected them and they became partners.  Imagine this -- after 32 years of blasting and digging their way laterally over 600’ into the earth, all the two immigrants managed to glean was $200 worth of gold, which they had to split 50/50 with their grubstake: The Bismarck Mine, and then split 50/50 with each other.  Hmmm, not good odds … or, as I said, kinda depressing.

 

 

Big Thunder makes everyone wear an attractive hard hat.

 On the other hand, Holy Terror Mine was $ucce$$ful.

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The next day we wanted to ride more Mickelson Trail, but the day was a washout with rain, so we continued on our way west.  We had a good time exploring this Black Hills area.  Maybe we'll return someday.