Road Trip-OR High Plains Desert-Camping, Hiking, Museums, Fossils & More
Details
First things first, this is a paid event. You need to pay me, the organizer $30 for camping fees and to secure your spot. Message me for payment details, otherwise you will sit on the waiting list.
Have you ever wanted to explore the high plains desert areas of Oregon? Are you interested in history and fossils and hiking and camping? How about ghost towns? What about the Painted Hills? Well, we are going to be able to do all those things in a long weekend...if we stay organized and move along as we caravan, camp and explore our way across some desert landscapes.
We will be visiting 3 museums and will camp at two different campgrounds, we will do some hiking each day, we will see fossils, ghost towns, and oh yes, did I mention the Painted Hills?!? Yes, we will do all this in a long weekend.
The basic schedule looks like this:
Friday-Meet at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Canter Museum in The Dalles, OR at 10am. Please be on time. We will spend about an hour here checking out the museum.
Home | Columbia Gorge Discovery Center
Next we head up the hill to the Fort Dalles Museum. We can spend about an hour here as well.
Fort Dalles Museum and Anderson Homestead | Fort Dalles Museum | Oregon
This gets us to lunch time, and we are going to eat at Bargeway Pub which sits right on the Columbia River. Hopefully, we can get riverside seating.
Bargeway Pub, Catering & Events Family Friendly Waterfront Dining & Live Music | The Dalles, Oregon ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑
After lunch, we drive out to the White River Falls State Park, this is the one of the first places in OR where electricity was produced. The falls are very scenic. We can spend maybe an hour here hiking around and checking out the area.
White River Falls State Park - Oregon State Parks
After this we head to camp. We will be traveling down the lower Deschutes River and camping at Beavertail Recreation Area. We will make camp, have dinner and hang out the fire. Okay, so that's day one.
[Beavertail Campground, Lower Deschutes Wild and Scenic River - Recreation.gov](https://www.recreation.gov/camping/poi/10283829)
On Saturday, we have breakfast in camp and then drive to the ghost town of Shaniko. Lot's of history here. Much of the wool used for WW1 uniforms was brought here to be loaded onto trains and shipped to processing plants. There are still a lot of standing buildings and a rather grand hotel that, I think, someone was taking over to get it operational. I guess we will see.
Shaniko, Oregon - Wikipedia
We now drive further east to the small town of Fossil. There is usually an operating restaurant of some kind, as well as a grocery store here. We can grab food and also check out the county courthouse which is just such a spectacular building and certainly worth taking some pics.
City of Fossil – Official Website of the City of Fossil, Oregon
We next cut further east, over to the John Day River canyon area. We will drive down OR 19 to the town of Spray. There is usually a place or two to eat here and an operational store. We will be camping right by the river, so we can swim and cool off if needed.
Home - Spray Oregon
On Sunday, we pack up and head south to go on a hike at Blue Basin. This is a very scenic hike among different colored layers of rocks, including some very interesting blue rocks. There are also fossils here. Yes, still embedded in the rock with protective coverings over them to help preserve them.
Blue Basin (U.S. National Park Service)
Next is the Thomas Condon House and Ranch. This is an historic sheep ranch where wool was gathered and bundled up for shipment. Mr Condon was also very instrumental in the preservation of all the fossils in the area, and so...we drive across the road to visit the Thomas Condon Visitor & Museum. Lots of fossils and information here. We now start meandering back towards Portland.
Thomas Condon Visitor Center - John Day Fossil Beds National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)
We will make a stop in Mitchell, we can eat here, get coffee, there's a store here as well.
Home Page | City of Mitchell, OR
When we are all ready, we head to our final stop of the tour, which is the Painted Hills of Oregon. Super unique are with layered hills of many colors, as well as fossils.
Painted Hills Unit - John Day Fossil Beds National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)
From here we head home. We can always stop for dinner on the way back, either in Prineville or Redmond. The ride home is rather scenic as well, US 26 to Redmond, and up over Mt Hood back to Portland.
What to bring: All normal camping gear and appropriate clothing. Bring enough food to cover meals and snacks for the duration of the trip. We will have lunch on the first day, but from then on out it gets a bit sketchy. I'm hoping there will be some eateries open at some of these small towns, but I wouldn't necessarily count on it. I can do further research as we get closer to launch time. You are also responsible for your entry fees into the museums. Don't forget to pay me if interested, and please be on time.
Questions? Please ask.