October 1-2, 2018 John Day, Oregon

High 60's and cloudy. Gloomy day. We drove to John Day Oregon.

We went over 3 passes.Through some nice forest, into some nice valleys and cute little towns. Some signs in John Day. The Kam Wah Chung heritage site, Welcome to John Day, Home of the Greatest Timber Truckers Light Parade. Don't know if this piece of equipment is a timber trucker, but it has a timber on it. We saw this white bicycle fence in Prairie city. 

Two shots of downtown John Day.  The bus at the Clyde Holliday State Park outside of John Day. the brochure says the park is an oasis shaded by tall cottonwood trees along the sparkling John Day river. 

You can rent these tepees to camp in here at the park. We took a hike around the park along the John Day river on a trail through the campground. 

Fall leaves, amural in town- Mosier's-everything for your home and a sign for the Ugly Truth bar and grill. Red rose hips, a seed head on a bush, golden grasses and bright rabbit bush blooms. 

This little lake was along the trail in the campground. Of course we went to the 1188 Brewery in town to, John sampling a Dunkle Bumper.

The masterpiece is basically done and sold. Another gray day so we toured the Kam Wah  Chung State Heritage site. It translates to Golden Flower of Prosperity. It was once a general store, a herbalists office, a place of worship and center of Chinese social life. It is just as it was when Dr Ing Hay was moved to  nursing home in 1948 and the building was sealed up. It  is the largest and best collection of Chinese herbal medicine in the world. Along with  his detailed notes scientists are studying it to regain some of the lost knowledge of Chinese medicine. 

The store room and the apothecary. The general store and kitchen. All pretty much the way it was left in 1948. 

A closer up shot of the apothecary- notice that some of his ingredients are on the chopping block, a bear paw and some herbs. By the bed on the night stand is a meat cleaver. The Chinese laborers were not allowed to have guns and there was a lot of discrimination. So he had the meat cleaver as a weapon. There were bullet holes in the front door showing some of the violence against the Chinese at the time.  Excellent tour.  The sun sort of came out between light rain showers in the afternoon. We walked along the nature path by the river. The fall colors are beautiful.  

More fall colors on the John Day river. The sky and clouds were pretty. If you look close you can see John in his camo jacket. He is hard to see he blends in so well.  

Fall colors in the campground at our site. A little bit of sunset tonight. The bright yellow leaves on the trees don't show up in the photo, but it looked pretty cool in real life.