Day 43 - Prairie City to Redmond, Oregon - 148 Miles

When we set out today, we had one goal in mind for sure and one goal in the back of our minds. First, we wanted to stop at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument as we drove west on Route 26 from our camp in Prairie City, Oregon. Second, we wanted to continue traveling west from the John Day site until we came to a nice camp in whatever time we had available after doing item one.

The first item came off admirably. Though we had to travel about an hour from Prairie City to the turnoff for Route 119 and the National Monument, we were able to spend a least two uninterrupted hours there just totally enthralled with the museum, with the wealth of information available, and with the friendly, helpful nature of the staff.

Probably more than one person would like to know how and why we got so interested in Geology. The answer is simple: the geology of this planet is everywhere we go! It's in the towering cliffs where the rock strata is pushed up in odd angles from the tremendous forces from within the earth. It's in the extinct volcano cores that dot the landscape like the smokestacks on old steam locomotives. It's in the roadcuts that we constantly pass that reveal just what the surrounding landscape, now covered with grasses and trees, looked like at one time. It's in the lofty peaks that strain the RV's engine as we slowly climb to the top, but which dazzle our senses as we realize that our conquered peak had once been thousands of feet under water as evidenced by the ocean fossils that can be found there now.

Geology is the key to understanding everything about our planet, and, if you travel long enough, it's the one thing that helps tie all of your continental AND regional knowledge together into one neat package. Want to know where gold mines are prevalent? Consult your geology handbook. Want to know why there are certain soils in certain states and not others? Consult your geology handbook. Want to know why some mesas composed largely of sandy sediments don't seem to erode? Well, you get the picture. If you travel in an RV, you might want to bring along a book or two to help you understand what you're seeing as you drive.

Our two hours at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument had us staring open-mouthed at dozens of biological and geological revelations, most of which we had never heard of or seen in the past. The particular area of Oregon in which we were located was a wild and wonderful place over the past fifty million years. Weird plants, weird animals, and huge fluctuations in climatic conditions sometimes brought on by vulcanization, as well as other, unknown, factors.

One geological phenomena that Concetta and I had never heard of in the past is something called a "basaltic flow," which is simply lava bursting to the surface and flowing out over the land without benefit of an actual volcano. I found it to be a pretty sobering concept to think about, since I doubt that the local fauna had much warning that they were about to be enveloped in lava. Here's some more history from Wikipedia:

"The John Day basin remained largely unexplored by non-natives until the mid-19th century. Lewis and Clark noted but did not explore the John Day River while traveling along the Columbia River in 1805. John Day, for whom the river is named, apparently visited only its confluence with the Columbia in 1812. In 1829, Peter Skene Ogden, working for the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), led a company of explorers and fur trappers along the river through what would later become the Sheep Rock Unit. John Work, also of the HBC, visited this part of the river in 1831."

"In the 1840s, thousands of settlers, attracted in part by the lure of free land, began emigrating west over the Oregon Trail. Leaving drought, worn-out farms, and economic problems behind, they emigrated from states like Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa in the Midwest to Oregon, especially the Willamette Valley in the western part of the state."

"After passage of the Homestead Act of 1862 and the discovery of gold in the upper John Day basin, a fraction of these newcomers abandoned the Willamette Valley in favor of eastern Oregon. Some established villages and engaged in subsistence farming and ranching near streams. Settlement was made more practical by a supply route from The Dalles on the Columbia River to gold mines at Canyon City in the upper John Day valley. By the late 1860s, the route became formalized as The Dalles Military Road, which passed along Bridge Creek and south of Sheep Rock. Clashes between natives and non-natives and the desire of the U.S. Government to populate the region with Euro-Americans led to the gradual removal of native residents to reservations, including three in north-central Oregon: Warm Springs, Burns Paiute, and Umatilla."

"In 1864, a company of soldiers sent to protect mining camps from raids by Northern Paiutes discovered fossils in the Crooked River region, south of the John Day basin. One of their leaders, Captain John M. Drake, collected some of these fossils for Thomas Condon, a missionary pastor and amateur geologist who lived in The Dalles. Recognizing the scientific importance of the fossils, Condon accompanied soldiers traveling through the region. He discovered rich fossil beds along Bridge Creek and near Sheep Rock in 1865."

"Condon's trips to the area and his public lectures and reports about his finds led to wide interest in the fossil beds among scientists such as Edward Drinker Cope of the Academy of Natural Sciences. One of them, paleontologist Othneil C. Marsh of Yale, accompanied Condon on a trip to the region in 1871. Condon's work led to his appointment in 1872 as Oregon's first state geologist and to international fame for the fossil beds. Specimens from the beds were sent to the Smithsonian Institution and other museums worldwide, and by 1900 more than 100 articles and books had been published about the John Day Fossil Beds. During the first half of the 20th century, scientists such as John C. Merriam, Ralph Chaney, Frank H. Knowlton, and Alonzo W. Hancock continued work in the fossil beds, including those discovered near Clarno in about 1890."

"The monument consists of three geographically separate units: Sheep Rock, Painted Hills, and Clarno. The units cover a total of 13,944 acres (5,643 ha) of semi-desert shrublands, riparian zones, and colorful badlands. About 210,000 people frequented the park in 2016 to engage in outdoor recreation or to visit the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center or the James Cant Ranch Historic District."

"The John Day Fossil Beds National Monument lies within the Blue Mountains physiographic province, which originated during the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous, about 118 to 93 million years ago.[34] Northeastern Oregon was assembled in large blocks (exotic terranes) of Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic rock shifted by tectonic forces and accreted to what was then the western edge of the North American continent, near the Idaho border.[35] By the beginning of the Cenozoic era, 66 million years ago, the Blue Mountains province was uplifting (that is, was being pushed higher by tectonic forces), and the Pacific Ocean shoreline, formerly near Idaho, had shifted to the west."

"Volcanic eruptions about 44 million years ago during the Eocene deposited lavas accompanied by debris flows (lahars) atop the older rocks in the western part of the province. Containing fragments of shale, siltstone, conglomerates, and breccias, the debris flows entombed plants and animals caught in their paths; the remnants of these ancient flows comprise the rock formations exposed in the Clarno Unit."

"Preserved in the Clarno Nut Beds are fossils of tropical and subtropical nuts, fruits, roots, branches, and seeds.[40] The Clarno Formation also contains bones, palm leaves longer than 24 inches (61 cm), avocado trees, and other subtropical plants from 50 million years ago, when the climate was warmer and wetter than it is in the 21st century."

"Large mammals that inhabited this region between 50 and 35 million years ago included browsers such as brontotheres and amynodonts, scavengers like the hyaenodonts, as well as Patriofelis and other predators. Eroded remnants of the Clarno stratovolcanoes, once the size of Mount Hood, are still visible near the monument, for example Black Butte, White Butte, and other buttes near Mitchell."

"After the Clarno volcanoes had subsided, they were replaced about 36 million years ago by eruptions from volcanoes to the west, in the general vicinity of what would become the Cascade Range. The John Day volcanoes, as they are called, emitted large volumes of ash and dust, much of which settled in the John Day basin. As with the earlier Clarno debris flows, the rapid deposition of ash preserved the remains of plants and animals living in the region."

"Because ash and other debris fell during varied climatic and volcanic conditions and accumulated from many further eruptions extending into the early Miocene (about 20 million years ago), the sediment layers in the fossil beds vary in their chemical composition and color."

"Laid down on top of the Clarno Strata, the younger John Day Strata consist of several distinct groups of layers. The lowermost contains red ash such as that exposed in the Painted Hills Unit. The layer above it is mainly pea-green clay. On top of the pea-green layer are buff-colored layers."

"Fossils found in the John Day Strata include a wide variety of plants and more than 100 species of mammals, including dogs, cats, oreodonts, saber-toothed tigers, horses, camels, and rodents. The Blue Basin and the Sheep Rock unit contain many of these same fossils, as well as turtles, opossums, and large pigs.[48] More than 60 plant species are fossilized in these strata, such as hydrangea, peas, hawthorn, and mulberry, as well as pines and many deciduous trees.[49] One of the notable plant fossils is the Metasequoia (dawn redwood), a genus thought to have gone extinct worldwide until it was discovered alive in China in the early 20th century."

"After another period of erosion, a series of lava eruptions from fissures across northeastern Oregon, southeastern Washington, and western Idaho inundated much of the Blue Mountain province with liquid basalt. Extruded in the middle Miocene between 17 and 12 million years ago, more than 40 separate flows contributing to the Columbia River Basalt Group have been identified, the largest of which involved up to 400 cubic miles (1,700 km3) of lava. The most prominent of these formations within the monument is the Picture Gorge Basalt, which rests above the John Day Strata."

"Subsequent ashfall from eruptions in the Cascade Range in the late Miocene contributed to the Mascall Formation, layers of stream-deposited volcanic tuffs laid atop the Picture Gorge Basalt.[52] Preserved in the Mascall are fossils of animals such as horses, camels, rhinoceroses, bears, pronghorn, deer, weasels, raccoons, cats, dogs, and sloths. These fauna thrived in the monument's open woodland and savannah between 15 and 12 million years ago. The fossils of oak, sycamore, maple, ginkgo, and elm trees reflect the area's cool climate during this time period."

"The last major eruption occurred in the late Miocene, about 7 million years ago. The resulting stratum, the Rattlesnake Formation, lies on top of the Mascall and contains an ignimbrite. The Rattlesnake stratum has fossils of mastodons, camels, rhinoceroses, the ancestors of dogs, lions, bears, and horses, and others that grazed on the grasslands of the time. Two fossilized teeth found recently in the Rattlesnake stratum near Dayville are the earliest record of beaver, Castor californicus, in North America. The beaver teeth, which are about 7 million years old, have been scheduled for display at the Condon Center."

"The monument contains extensive deposits of well-preserved fossils from various periods spanning more than 40 million years. Taken as a whole, the fossils present an unusually detailed view of plants and animals since the late Eocene. In addition, analysis of the John Day fossils has contributed to paleoclimatology (the study of Earth's past climates) and the study of evolution."

"Paleontologists at the monument find, describe the location of, and collect fossil-bearing rocks from more than 700 sites. They take them to the paleontology laboratory at the visitor center, where the fossils are stabilized, separated from their rock matrix, and cleaned. The fossil specimens are then catalogued, indexed, stored in climate-controlled cabinets, and made available for research. In addition to preparing fossils, the paleontologists coordinate the monument's basic research in paleobotany and other scientific areas and manage the fossil museum in the visitor center."

And there you have it. I know that you're not going to get the geology "bug" by reading my excerpts from Wikipedia, but believe me, you'll find the John Day Fossil center is well worth visiting and learning about these millions of years earth's history.

Once we were out of the museum, we had our lunch in the parking lot, then hit the road around 1:00 p.m. With just two hours to travel we didn't plan on getting much beyond Prineville, but as fate would have it, we trusted Ms. GPS yet again, and yet again she mislead us. Where we had programmed her for the Prineville area, she had other ideas. Before we were done pursuing another wild goose chase, we had driven all the way to Redmond, Oregon, a distance for the day of 148 miles.

Oh, well, it did allow us to do some shopping in Prineville, grab some gas, and now we're in good shape for supplies. But that's definitely the last time we're turning the conniving female on until this trip is over. Tomorrow, we're headed a short distance down Route 97 to Bend, Oregon, where we hope to finish what we started at the High Desert Museum. You may remember the High Desert Museum from the blog a month ago or more. It was there that I thought I'd get a great photo if I climbed to the top of a large pillar. I subsequently fell off and got some very painful and long-lasting "contusions," as the ER doctor in Oregon City put it. Fortunately, a month later I'm feeling much better.

At the time we could only do a part of the museum, and now we're going back for the rest. We'll probably camp in Bend so we don't have to worry about making miles tomorrow now that we're pretty close to home. Perhaps we'll even have time to do some hiking or walking since we didn't get very many steps today.

Tonight's camp here in Redmond is very nice, though we didn't expect it to be so. When we discovered that Ms. GPS intended for us to drive even further this afternoon, we turned her off and sought out this camp run by the county. We've stayed in good and bad county parks over the years, but this one turned out to be nearly flawless in it's expertly run, 105-space design. It had a fairly decent laundry room, though too few machines Concetta tells me. But all the pads are level concrete, and we were able to get full hookups.

And there you have it. The day is done, our brains are loaded down with all sorts of new information, and the sun is finally setting which will soon cool off the camp. If you someday take to the highways and byways of America, for God's sake get yourself a good GPS. Don't get a cheap one, and don't rely on your IPhone as in many parts of the country there is no cell service. But the thing is to go, even if you have to navigate by the always reliable paper maps. Try it! You'll have loads of fun, and while you're doing it, we wish you exciting destinations and memorable travels from the Davises, the Happy Wanderers.