Oregon Road trip, August 2014 Part 1 - PIC HEAVY
Apr 25, 2015 18:18:48 GMT -5
drocknut, quartz, and 6 more like this
Post by herchenx on Apr 25, 2015 18:18:48 GMT -5
Well, I come hat in hand asking for forgiveness for my very long absence. I see rockroller has been posting some of our more recent exploits, but I've been busy. Not just rocking, actually barely rocking (but some) but with lots of other stuff.
My knee surgeries precipitated a re-introduction to long hours at my desk, I've been busy doing work, which has led to more work, which has snowballed then avalanched and now I am buried..
BUT I miss you all, I miss being out and about, I miss my saws and tumblers and finding all the beauty in our various and related hobbies so I'm starting by fulfilling some long overdue projects, the first of which is the big road trip to Oregon last summer.
Our family of 6 packed into our used minivan and headed out from Fort Collins, CO. We drove up through Laramie on HWY 287, then caught I-80 west and crossed Wyoming, dropping into Utah and around Salt Lake City.
We stayed in I-80 all the way through Utah. Great Salt Lake:
Salt Mines:
Salt flats headed west - had it not been raining these would be snow white
After crossing the amazing salt flats including passing near Bonneville, we headed into Nevada. We made our way across Nevada, still on the first day of our drive. We looked at a map and decided to head north at Winnemucca, which is where we stopped the first night.
We got up the first morning of our trip and headed out:
We made our way toward the Royal Peacock Opal Mine, hopeful to find some opal!
We stopped at the Virgin Valley warm springs, the kids looked at the tadpoles but we wanted to get to the opal mine:
When we got to the mine, it was very cloudy and a little rainy. The nice lady at the office said we'd be wasting time and money looking on that particular day, without the sun the opals are difficult to find.
We asked for any rock alternatives, and she suggested we head to Plush, Oregon to find sunstones. Off we went.
It was interesting, I'd always thought all of Oregon was a rainforest, but the East part, maybe half, is desert. Right near the border there was a large cliff face we headed over, and could see for miles as we descended the road cut down the side.
As we neared Plush, the volcanic rock became more and more obvious
About 30 minutes North of Plush we arrived at the public rock hounding area
Immediately I was finding sunstones
As I discovered last summer hounding Sunstone Knoll with Roland, the rain helped pop out the yellow stones. I showed the family what we were looking for and everyone went to work
My youngest was struggling with his poncho
He couldn't seem to find any, and kept fiddling with his poncho. I thought he'd end up finding something else to do then suddenly he shouted "Dad, is this one?"
It turned out to be HUGE. It was unfortunate he found it so soon, because he only wanted to find the big ones, but this one was 5-6 times larger than the next biggest ones any of us found. It is a great spot if anyone ever gets a chance to head out there. The road is not bad, it had decent gravel, although it seemed a little sharp and I was worried for our tires. We didn't see any services once we left Plush so make sure you have enough gas and a spare tire if you go.
Everyone found a bunch of sunstones, mostly small, but had a great time.
We made our way toward Lakeview, Oregon to stay at Hunter's Hot Springs. Lakeview is an interesting place, very small, rural, not much to do, but they have *quail* running all over town
This was the clearest photo I have, they are tiny, but would run right down the middle of the road.
There was also deer right in people's yards (look closely behind the bush)
We got to Hunter's Hot Springs, and the rooms were clean but everything was decades outdated, we liked it
The hot springs were OK, it was a swimming pool that had warm water in it, a concrete rectangle but it was nice to be in the warm water.
The second morning we headed out and started to get into forest pretty fast. We made our wall all the way to Klamath Falls, and saw a lot of the Upper Klamath Falls lake, the photos don't do it justice, it was beautiful.
The weather broke a little as we drove, and I kept eyeing the roadcuts:
Then a little sign told us we made it to California:
The trees changed pretty dramatically, we were expecting redwoods but the forest was lush and green, but not redwoods
Then the trees changed again, not yet the enormous ones we expected, but very cool, and old
Then they got big, so we pulled over
We spent a good 90 minutes exploring the area immediately around where we parked. It felt like we were Emoks on Endor
Everything was huge, if felt primordial
A passing stranger was kind enough to take a family photo
It was getting late, and we were tired and hungry, so once the newness of the giant forest wore off, we headed toward Crescent City, and the Pacific
We found the first Seafood Restaurant we could and orderd a fish dinner
We had about 2 hours to get to the place we rented, so we finished dinner then headed north into Oregon again toward the rental house. The Pacific Coase in souther Oregon is unbelievable
I took some photos on my big camera at sunset the third evening, but unfortunately don't have those handy.
For now, I need to hit the road, headed to Tucson for work this week. I don't think I will have any rocking time, but after I finish the rest of this trip report I will get caught up on reports and share my LAST trip to Tucson, which I did via driving and was able to do some hounding in New Mexico. Sorry for typos, I've had to rush this.
It's good to be sharing again. Thanks for reading!
My knee surgeries precipitated a re-introduction to long hours at my desk, I've been busy doing work, which has led to more work, which has snowballed then avalanched and now I am buried..
BUT I miss you all, I miss being out and about, I miss my saws and tumblers and finding all the beauty in our various and related hobbies so I'm starting by fulfilling some long overdue projects, the first of which is the big road trip to Oregon last summer.
Our family of 6 packed into our used minivan and headed out from Fort Collins, CO. We drove up through Laramie on HWY 287, then caught I-80 west and crossed Wyoming, dropping into Utah and around Salt Lake City.
We stayed in I-80 all the way through Utah. Great Salt Lake:
Salt Mines:
Salt flats headed west - had it not been raining these would be snow white
After crossing the amazing salt flats including passing near Bonneville, we headed into Nevada. We made our way across Nevada, still on the first day of our drive. We looked at a map and decided to head north at Winnemucca, which is where we stopped the first night.
We got up the first morning of our trip and headed out:
We made our way toward the Royal Peacock Opal Mine, hopeful to find some opal!
We stopped at the Virgin Valley warm springs, the kids looked at the tadpoles but we wanted to get to the opal mine:
When we got to the mine, it was very cloudy and a little rainy. The nice lady at the office said we'd be wasting time and money looking on that particular day, without the sun the opals are difficult to find.
We asked for any rock alternatives, and she suggested we head to Plush, Oregon to find sunstones. Off we went.
It was interesting, I'd always thought all of Oregon was a rainforest, but the East part, maybe half, is desert. Right near the border there was a large cliff face we headed over, and could see for miles as we descended the road cut down the side.
As we neared Plush, the volcanic rock became more and more obvious
About 30 minutes North of Plush we arrived at the public rock hounding area
Immediately I was finding sunstones
As I discovered last summer hounding Sunstone Knoll with Roland, the rain helped pop out the yellow stones. I showed the family what we were looking for and everyone went to work
My youngest was struggling with his poncho
He couldn't seem to find any, and kept fiddling with his poncho. I thought he'd end up finding something else to do then suddenly he shouted "Dad, is this one?"
It turned out to be HUGE. It was unfortunate he found it so soon, because he only wanted to find the big ones, but this one was 5-6 times larger than the next biggest ones any of us found. It is a great spot if anyone ever gets a chance to head out there. The road is not bad, it had decent gravel, although it seemed a little sharp and I was worried for our tires. We didn't see any services once we left Plush so make sure you have enough gas and a spare tire if you go.
Everyone found a bunch of sunstones, mostly small, but had a great time.
We made our way toward Lakeview, Oregon to stay at Hunter's Hot Springs. Lakeview is an interesting place, very small, rural, not much to do, but they have *quail* running all over town
This was the clearest photo I have, they are tiny, but would run right down the middle of the road.
There was also deer right in people's yards (look closely behind the bush)
We got to Hunter's Hot Springs, and the rooms were clean but everything was decades outdated, we liked it
The hot springs were OK, it was a swimming pool that had warm water in it, a concrete rectangle but it was nice to be in the warm water.
The second morning we headed out and started to get into forest pretty fast. We made our wall all the way to Klamath Falls, and saw a lot of the Upper Klamath Falls lake, the photos don't do it justice, it was beautiful.
The weather broke a little as we drove, and I kept eyeing the roadcuts:
Then a little sign told us we made it to California:
The trees changed pretty dramatically, we were expecting redwoods but the forest was lush and green, but not redwoods
Then the trees changed again, not yet the enormous ones we expected, but very cool, and old
Then they got big, so we pulled over
We spent a good 90 minutes exploring the area immediately around where we parked. It felt like we were Emoks on Endor
Everything was huge, if felt primordial
A passing stranger was kind enough to take a family photo
It was getting late, and we were tired and hungry, so once the newness of the giant forest wore off, we headed toward Crescent City, and the Pacific
We found the first Seafood Restaurant we could and orderd a fish dinner
We had about 2 hours to get to the place we rented, so we finished dinner then headed north into Oregon again toward the rental house. The Pacific Coase in souther Oregon is unbelievable
I took some photos on my big camera at sunset the third evening, but unfortunately don't have those handy.
For now, I need to hit the road, headed to Tucson for work this week. I don't think I will have any rocking time, but after I finish the rest of this trip report I will get caught up on reports and share my LAST trip to Tucson, which I did via driving and was able to do some hounding in New Mexico. Sorry for typos, I've had to rush this.
It's good to be sharing again. Thanks for reading!