September 28-30 2018 Farewell Bend State Park to Baker City, Oregon

85 and sunny. I floated 5 miles on the Snake River today into camp. John did not want to go because it was flat water. He was delighted to have some time to himself at home.

The river is pretty flat here with a margin of green in the dried grass hills here. It is really low now. But it had some rocks I had to avoid and a few ripples. It was nice to be on the water on a hot day. 

I scared up some Canada Geese and some coots. 

Since we are in the Pacific Time zone I am up earlier. Sunrise this am. We drove to Baker City, Oregon and today we went to the National Oregon trail museum. It was very interesting. Those guys who traveled 6 months across the prairie, desert, mountains etc were tough.  

We hiked two miles round trip to see the wagon ruts on the trail. There was a wagon and some historical markers where the trail is, but we did not see wagon ruts.  The upper part is where the wagon ruts are supposed to be and below was a huge dry basin they had to travel across, 18 miles to the next water. Another wagon by the museum with blooming rabbit brush.  

We are on the Hell's Canyon  scenic byway. Hell's canyon is still 68 miles from here. We are going to try and visit it next trip though this area.  Purple asters, gone by rabbit bush against dark sky, thistle seed heads with no seeds, and rabbit bush by a covered wagon. Beautiful historic downtown Baker City, Oregon. We went into the Historic Geiser Hotel with the turret at the end of the street, but they would not let us walk around and look at the historic hotel, you had to take a tour.  

I took John out to dinner at the Barley Brown's brewery for his birthday. John with a double IPA. The beer was good and the food was OK. Sunset over Baker City. 

The bus at our site at Mountain View RV resort. Lots of trees and grass. I worked on the masterpiece this am. Finished up the pine needle part, now tying up loose ends. The last row is needles that I dyed. 

John is still trying to blend into the foliage with his camo jacket. It was in the 60's and mostly cloudy. We went on a walk in the afternoon along the trail by the Powder river into town.  Nice fall colors starting. 

Another view of the Powder river. Weirdest spider we have ever seen. It was big about the size of a quarter and about a dimes worth on it's back. Fall colors and this poor garter snake was on the bike trail. John was trying to shoo it back onto the bike path so I could get a photo but is scared to death and raced off.  

Baker City is know for it's large historic district. It was at one time a very rich gold mining town and has beautiful buildings like this nice house.  Once we got to town we stopped by the wine tasting room and the Baker Brown's brewery tap room. We had dinner last night at the brewery restaurant. The tap room is across the street and has different beer to taste. The bartender was the same guy who was our waiter last night-Shane. Great waiter and bartender.  

Sunset in camp tonight. 

September 25-27, 2018 Mountain Home, Idaho to Farewell Bend State Park, Oregon

We drove to Mountain Home, Idaho today.

Wooden trailer seen at the Craters of the Moon campground last night. Changing aspen on the way to Mountain Home. 

The bus at the Mountain Home RV Park.n Nice for a commercial park. We have lots of room, trees, lawn and a picnic table. Very clean. I added some wraps and a couple beads to the basket today. It is coming along.  

I did laundry this afternoon, John went to the grocery store to resupply. Sunset from our site tonight. They are doubling the size of the park right now.  

My usual rant. Too much light. Little street lamps along the street, lights in the pedestal were we plug in- which is right outside the bedroom window, plus the neighbor left their porch light on shining at us. And what is up with the colored lights under the rig?? They are  becoming popular now. I like to go camping because it is dark outside at night. . . Not that it matters since now is the full moon. We made it into Oregon today. We had to stop for a boat inspection for invasive species.  We have had to do that in Wyoming, Idaho and now Oregon. We passed all three inspections. We are camped on the Snake River at Farewell Bend State Park. This is a picture of the Snake River here. The yellow jacket nest is right above the sign. 

 After lots of miles of dry, brown grass covered hills and sandy dirt we came to the Snake River. It is lovely blue with green around it.  Here is the bus at our campsite at Farewell Bend State Park. We are at an end site with the river behind us.

  

Farewell Bend is a stop of the Oregon Trail where the travelers were delighted to find good water and feed for their animals. Sunset over the Snake River tonight. 

The current masterpiece is coming along with a wrap and some beads. The light blue beads will be added next. I am liking how it is coming out. We drove to Huntington, Ore - The Catfish Capital of Oregon and they have their Catfish Derby on Memorial Day weekend. It has two marijuana dispensaries, the liquor store, laundromat, beauty shop, and bait and tackle combination store on Beer Belly street, as you leave town there are sharp curves, falling rocks, and severe slides. Wayne and Dottie's cabins and a view of the town of Huntington. 

We drove up steam on the Snake river to  Weiser, Idaho - the home of the wolverines- We love our kids, our community and our country. On the way we passed corn fields and a truck full of onions. Weiser was a cute little town with lots of historic buildings and older homes. This castle was one of the buildings downtown. On the way back into Baker County we also passed into the Pacific Time zone. There was an ad for the Golden Nugget coffee shop in Huntington, you get a $6 coupon for the dispensary too there. 

Just north of Huntington we looked at a take out for the Snake river-I want to float some of it, this is what we found. It is close to the dam and there is no current or greenery. Think I will pass on going that far down. Closer to camp the river has current, and lots of greenery. 

Sunset below camp and the masterpiece so far in the sun and shade.

September 23-24, 2018 Craters of the Moon, Idaho

60’s, cloudy and windy. We hung out inside till the after noon when the sun came back out.

We went to Wild Rose Hot Spring to soak. It is just down the road and a free pool by the highway, but out of sight of it. This is the latest masterpiece so far.

                        The full moon rose tonight right over the bus and the cool lava in our campsite.

Today we hiked the Broken Top Trail around a cinder cone and the wilderness trail to the lava trees. 4.4 miles. Broken Top was formed as frothy, molten rock was sprayed high into the air from a linear eruption fissure. John walking through rabbit bush up to his shoulders. On the Wilderness trail toward Big Cinder Butte, the largest cinder cone in the monument.  A fountain of fire twice that high produced the cone. The aspen on the eastern edge have turned golden.

Rabbit bush were very pretty against the blue sky.  Pahoehoe lava in front of Big Cinder butte. 

Blazing star- about 3 inches across, purple aster, yellow flowering bush, a close up of some tiny cinders. They contain many gas bubbles or vesicles making them very light in weight. Some are light enough to float on water. This layers of glass coat the cinders creating prisms that refract and reflect light.  A close up of lava that is iridescent blue as a result of titanium magnetite crystals suspended in the glassy rock surface. A tiny plant growing in the cinders.  The top two are of the lava trees, they are molds of upright trees that the lava surrounded as is flowed by. Yellow aster and bright yellow rabbit bush flowers against black lava and blue sky. Part of the trail description for the Broken top trail. Trail surface: cinders and lava, obstructions- Rocks up to 12 inches, steps up to 20 inches and ruts up to 10 inches. Warning Entry into buffalo Cave requires scrambling over loose rock and crouch under low ceilings.  Temporary obstructions may include downed trees and rock fall.

John next to red cinders in front of Big Cinder Butte.  Another caldera along the wilderness trail.

John and lava trees. Red lava and blue sky.

Buffalo Cave-another lava tube cave, the one in the trail description that said: entry into cave requires scrambling over  rock and crouching under low ceilings. Unstable footing, falling rocks, low ceilings and dark areas. . . 

  I climbed up to the top of the Inferno Cinder Cone. It is a short steep 0.2 mile  hike. In the winter they let you snow shoe or skin to the top and ski down.  From the top you get a view of cinder cones lined up along the Great RiftWe have been hiking across two young pahoehoe lava flows: Broken Top and Blue Dragon. In the Hawaiian language, Pahoehoe means, “ropy:, as the feature here illustrates.

Views from the top of Inferno Cone of the huge lava flow to the horizon. 

Walking back down Inferno Cone to the parking lot below.