This is an area to discuss anything that has to do with Arts & Cultural items, such as Photography, Paintings, History, Movies, Television, Music, Fashion, etc.Geology road trip
06-17-2009, 06:12 PM
#1
Administrator
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Lacey, WA
Posts: 12,515
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
Vehicle: Two Accents, Mini, Miata, Van, Outback, and a ZX-6
Geology road trip
So, we went on a road trip last weekend to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The trip was all about history and geology with all the standard fun road trip stuff thrown in.
The full album is here.
Our route took us 938 miles, 20 hours of driving in 36 hours. It was pretty brutal actually.
We went with Jamey (Sephlar) and Amy both families in our Tibs.
Crossing the bridge into Oregon where we picked up endlessmike (old skool friend from HP)
We drove right by Mt. Hood but couldn't see it because it was cloudy. On the east side of the mountains we stopped in Prineville at a pioneer museum I heard it wasn't very cool so I didn't go in.
We drove up to White Fir Springs Agate Beds in the Tibs to look for thunder eggs, jasper, and agate.
The road up there sucked (gravel) and we were in the middle of a thunderstorm. We climbed a mountain basically and I was constantly and painfully reminded of my 2 inch ground clearance.
My daughter kept bringing me rocks to break open. We found some jasper and agate, but nothing super awesome.
We left and headed towards the town of Mitchell to get something to eat. Mitchell is a tiny town with a population of 170 and when we got there the cafe was closed. The GPS said there was another cafe a little ways down a side road so we went there. We told them we had seven people but they didn't really have room for 7 people even if we sat at different tables so they had some people move to make room for us. The people were super friendly and the food was great. TMy biggest complaint was that the locals were almost too friendly. I don't mind a little talking while I'm eating but sometimes it was a bit more than I could handle. From the cafe we saw tons of deer walking around on the hill on the opposite side of the road. It was a pretty cool place. We were given useful insights to the local area and the offer was made to take us out to find jasper any time we wanted. There was even a hot chick in the cafe which is unusual in small towns like that.
We also got a ton of comic relief from the mayor's husband. He asked if we had met Henry yet. As it turns out Henry is a 600 pound black bear that is in a cage near the gas station. We were given the advice to not put our face against the bear's cage. I suppose it seems like common sense but i guess you never know what people are going to do. I guess they use to let visitors go inside the cage and feed Henry, but they stopped when he got over 500 pounds. Seems like a wise choice.
After Mitchell we headed for the painted hills.
It is an amazing place.
The colors were vivid and varied.
I got a lot of pics that I think came out pretty good.
I even got an ultra rare family picture.
The hill surface is a clay and it looks smooth in the distance but it is cracked when you are close to it.
The colors were unearthly.
Jamey leads us towards Fossil, OR where we can dig for leaf fossils for free.
His GPS routed us through some crazy 15 mile gravel cutoff road. I don't know if it was a shortcut or not, but it was a horrible choice in our cars.
Eventually we made it to Fossil. As we close in on the town we see that there is a wicked thunder storm sitting right over the town. We decide fossils weren't worth the trouble of actually getting out of the car in that weather so we decide to get gas. The only gas station in Fossil is closed. Why wouldn't it be, it's 5:00pm. Lol.
I find another gas station on the GPS in Condon, OR so we set off. I was pretty low on gas at this point. Outside of Fossil the weather wasn't too bad. We drove through the "town" of Mayville. Mayville was an interesting place, it consisted of about 3 occupied houses and 7 abandoned houses some dating back to pioneer times. It wasn't the kind of place I would be comfortable stopping. Eventually we get to Condon and the gas station I was looking for was closed. There was another abandoned gas station and then we spot one that was actually open so we went around the block to get gas. As we pulled up to the main street a 70's pickup comes driving by with what I can only describe as a mutant in the passenger seat hanging out the window. The guy took up the whole full size pickup window with his shoulders and looked to be around 7 feet tall. He wasn't quite as disfigured as Sloth from the Goonies but he's definitely not right and he's looking at us sort of like we look delicious. I was VERY glad that I had the Glock. We got gas and headed back towards Fossil to see if the weather had cleared up. Unsurprisingly the weather had not cleared up so we headed towards our motel in John Day.
Highways 19 and 26 between Fossil and John Day Oregon is one of the funnest roads I've ever driven. It's marked 55mph and it's full of corners marked between 20 and 35. It would take one hell of a car and driver to stay within your lane and drive the road at 5 over the speed limit. I could do most of it at the speed limit but there were some corners that I had trouble at 50mph. It was a great time. Well, for most of us. We stopped because Amy's nephew got carsick. We ended up going ahead to get the motel rooms squared away and that let me flog those corners like I had wanted to. Great fun, and didn't need to speed to have it.
We got to the motel and after a while we wanted to get food and some beer. Me and endlessmike drove all over the town looking for a place to buy beer with no luck so we hit McDonalds. There were a couple of hot chicks working, and when I got my food I asked one where we could get beer in town. She was not amused. It didn't look like much would amuse her though. But she got someone to give me directions to the Elkhorn. Whatever that was. Turns out it's the local convenience store slash twenty something hangout. There were skanks everywhere. It was sort of scary but wow if you were desperate there was plenty to go around. We got our beer and went back to the motel where we all decided to sleep instead of drink.
In the morning We packed up to leave by 8:00am. I noticed that the hood looks exactly how i want it to when it's wet.
We get served breakfast at McDonalds by a boy that could not have been more than 13 years old and head for the John Condon visitor's center.
So we took more car pics.
Look through the Photobucket link if you want to see more fossils but here are some. I have always been interested in North America's extinct megafauna. All these creatures have been excavated in the local area.
Brontothere jaw
Creodont skull. A carnivore the size of a bear unlike anything alive today.
Amynodont skull. A large semiaquatic mammal with big canine teeth.
A "Toy Sabertooth" skull. Full sized specimens were slightly larger than a bobcat.
Entelodont skull. This thing is a huge omnivore that in my opinion resembles an "Underworld" style werewolf. The skull is about 2 feet long with 4-6 inch canine teeth. It stood about 6 feet tall at the shoulder and is the largest mammal land predator I have ever heard of. This thing is seriously massive, looking at it among other fossil skulls it's a beast. It's the thing of nightmares. That's a big cat similar to a tiger's skull in the foreground for comparison.
Gomphothere jaw. An extinct relative of elephants.
"Short-faced" nimravid skull and spine. This creature was medium sized and specially adapted to attack larger prey.
After the visitor's center endlessmike and my daughter walked to a viewpoint and my daughter took this picture:
It was her first time using a real camera and she did a great job.
We left and headed to Fossil to try one more time to get some leaf fossils. The thunder storm was gone but the fossil dig site was closed due to the rain making it tough to dig in the clay. For us the third time wasn't the charm. After that we headed home and had a nice uneventful drive.
The full album is here.
Our route took us 938 miles, 20 hours of driving in 36 hours. It was pretty brutal actually.
We went with Jamey (Sephlar) and Amy both families in our Tibs.
Crossing the bridge into Oregon where we picked up endlessmike (old skool friend from HP)
We drove right by Mt. Hood but couldn't see it because it was cloudy. On the east side of the mountains we stopped in Prineville at a pioneer museum I heard it wasn't very cool so I didn't go in.
We drove up to White Fir Springs Agate Beds in the Tibs to look for thunder eggs, jasper, and agate.
The road up there sucked (gravel) and we were in the middle of a thunderstorm. We climbed a mountain basically and I was constantly and painfully reminded of my 2 inch ground clearance.
My daughter kept bringing me rocks to break open. We found some jasper and agate, but nothing super awesome.
We left and headed towards the town of Mitchell to get something to eat. Mitchell is a tiny town with a population of 170 and when we got there the cafe was closed. The GPS said there was another cafe a little ways down a side road so we went there. We told them we had seven people but they didn't really have room for 7 people even if we sat at different tables so they had some people move to make room for us. The people were super friendly and the food was great. TMy biggest complaint was that the locals were almost too friendly. I don't mind a little talking while I'm eating but sometimes it was a bit more than I could handle. From the cafe we saw tons of deer walking around on the hill on the opposite side of the road. It was a pretty cool place. We were given useful insights to the local area and the offer was made to take us out to find jasper any time we wanted. There was even a hot chick in the cafe which is unusual in small towns like that.
We also got a ton of comic relief from the mayor's husband. He asked if we had met Henry yet. As it turns out Henry is a 600 pound black bear that is in a cage near the gas station. We were given the advice to not put our face against the bear's cage. I suppose it seems like common sense but i guess you never know what people are going to do. I guess they use to let visitors go inside the cage and feed Henry, but they stopped when he got over 500 pounds. Seems like a wise choice.
After Mitchell we headed for the painted hills.
It is an amazing place.
The colors were vivid and varied.
I got a lot of pics that I think came out pretty good.
I even got an ultra rare family picture.
The hill surface is a clay and it looks smooth in the distance but it is cracked when you are close to it.
The colors were unearthly.
Jamey leads us towards Fossil, OR where we can dig for leaf fossils for free.
His GPS routed us through some crazy 15 mile gravel cutoff road. I don't know if it was a shortcut or not, but it was a horrible choice in our cars.
Eventually we made it to Fossil. As we close in on the town we see that there is a wicked thunder storm sitting right over the town. We decide fossils weren't worth the trouble of actually getting out of the car in that weather so we decide to get gas. The only gas station in Fossil is closed. Why wouldn't it be, it's 5:00pm. Lol.
I find another gas station on the GPS in Condon, OR so we set off. I was pretty low on gas at this point. Outside of Fossil the weather wasn't too bad. We drove through the "town" of Mayville. Mayville was an interesting place, it consisted of about 3 occupied houses and 7 abandoned houses some dating back to pioneer times. It wasn't the kind of place I would be comfortable stopping. Eventually we get to Condon and the gas station I was looking for was closed. There was another abandoned gas station and then we spot one that was actually open so we went around the block to get gas. As we pulled up to the main street a 70's pickup comes driving by with what I can only describe as a mutant in the passenger seat hanging out the window. The guy took up the whole full size pickup window with his shoulders and looked to be around 7 feet tall. He wasn't quite as disfigured as Sloth from the Goonies but he's definitely not right and he's looking at us sort of like we look delicious. I was VERY glad that I had the Glock. We got gas and headed back towards Fossil to see if the weather had cleared up. Unsurprisingly the weather had not cleared up so we headed towards our motel in John Day.
Highways 19 and 26 between Fossil and John Day Oregon is one of the funnest roads I've ever driven. It's marked 55mph and it's full of corners marked between 20 and 35. It would take one hell of a car and driver to stay within your lane and drive the road at 5 over the speed limit. I could do most of it at the speed limit but there were some corners that I had trouble at 50mph. It was a great time. Well, for most of us. We stopped because Amy's nephew got carsick. We ended up going ahead to get the motel rooms squared away and that let me flog those corners like I had wanted to. Great fun, and didn't need to speed to have it.
We got to the motel and after a while we wanted to get food and some beer. Me and endlessmike drove all over the town looking for a place to buy beer with no luck so we hit McDonalds. There were a couple of hot chicks working, and when I got my food I asked one where we could get beer in town. She was not amused. It didn't look like much would amuse her though. But she got someone to give me directions to the Elkhorn. Whatever that was. Turns out it's the local convenience store slash twenty something hangout. There were skanks everywhere. It was sort of scary but wow if you were desperate there was plenty to go around. We got our beer and went back to the motel where we all decided to sleep instead of drink.
In the morning We packed up to leave by 8:00am. I noticed that the hood looks exactly how i want it to when it's wet.
We get served breakfast at McDonalds by a boy that could not have been more than 13 years old and head for the John Condon visitor's center.
So we took more car pics.
Look through the Photobucket link if you want to see more fossils but here are some. I have always been interested in North America's extinct megafauna. All these creatures have been excavated in the local area.
Brontothere jaw
Creodont skull. A carnivore the size of a bear unlike anything alive today.
Amynodont skull. A large semiaquatic mammal with big canine teeth.
A "Toy Sabertooth" skull. Full sized specimens were slightly larger than a bobcat.
Entelodont skull. This thing is a huge omnivore that in my opinion resembles an "Underworld" style werewolf. The skull is about 2 feet long with 4-6 inch canine teeth. It stood about 6 feet tall at the shoulder and is the largest mammal land predator I have ever heard of. This thing is seriously massive, looking at it among other fossil skulls it's a beast. It's the thing of nightmares. That's a big cat similar to a tiger's skull in the foreground for comparison.
Gomphothere jaw. An extinct relative of elephants.
"Short-faced" nimravid skull and spine. This creature was medium sized and specially adapted to attack larger prey.
After the visitor's center endlessmike and my daughter walked to a viewpoint and my daughter took this picture:
It was her first time using a real camera and she did a great job.
We left and headed to Fossil to try one more time to get some leaf fossils. The thunder storm was gone but the fossil dig site was closed due to the rain making it tough to dig in the clay. For us the third time wasn't the charm. After that we headed home and had a nice uneventful drive.
06-17-2009, 08:02 PM
#3
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 850
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Vehicle: 2002 Accent
that looks groovy. nice to see you got the whole family involved. how'd your daughter like the fossils? that stuff amazed me when i was younger. (still does)
06-17-2009, 09:30 PM
#5
Administrator
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Lacey, WA
Posts: 12,515
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
Vehicle: Two Accents, Mini, Miata, Van, Outback, and a ZX-6
My daughter loves the fossils and rockhounding. She wants to be a paleontologist when she grows up.
06-18-2009, 09:21 AM
#8
Administrator
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Lacey, WA
Posts: 12,515
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
Vehicle: Two Accents, Mini, Miata, Van, Outback, and a ZX-6
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ereeves116 @ Jun 17 2009, 11:23 PM) </div><div class='quotemain'>i did too, i have no idea why i didn't pursue that. she sounds like an awesome kid.</div>
Yeah, I couldn't hope for a better kid. She has her moments but overall I am very happy with her and we get along pretty well.
Yeah, I couldn't hope for a better kid. She has her moments but overall I am very happy with her and we get along pretty well.
06-18-2009, 10:32 PM
#9
Moderator
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Western, Washington
Posts: 984
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Vehicle: 05 Hyundai Tiburon SE
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ereeves116 @ Jun 17 2009, 11:23 PM) </div><div class='quotemain'>i did too, i have no idea why i didn't pursue that. she sounds like an awesome kid.</div>
If you think she's so awesome you can have her!! She is fully potty trained and had all her shots! We will even throw in a bottle of aspirin and a 12 pack to wash it down with! LOL!!!! Just playin! We wouldn't trade her, well maybe!!!
If you think she's so awesome you can have her!! She is fully potty trained and had all her shots! We will even throw in a bottle of aspirin and a 12 pack to wash it down with! LOL!!!! Just playin! We wouldn't trade her, well maybe!!!
