Lots of Little Adventures (09-16-17)

Once we had our appointments set up to get the tires, and the alignment, we looked around for things to do to fill in the time while we waited.

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was on our travel route, so we stopped in the nearby town of Princeton to check it out.

As part of the Pacific Flyway, the refuge offers sanctuary to hundreds of species of  migrating and nesting birds. Unfortunately, this isn’t really the time of year to see them, so we were mostly out of luck.  We did see some egrets while touring a historic sod house.

We had booked two nights in this small, and very “out of the way” RV park and our one full day there was spent driving.  We elected to drive the scenic byway into the Steens Mountains.

We started getting a little resigned to boredom, since the first hour or so of the drive was not exactly exciting.  But then the scenery started to change. We first came upon Kiger Gorge.  The landscape here was carved by glaciers, many years ago.







We met, and chatted with, a fellow traveler, as we enjoyed the cool air and the beautiful scenery. I was also on the lookout for wildlife.  Golden eagles live here, as well as the Kiger Mustangs.









At 9700 feet, this is the highest road in Oregon.  Along the way, there were many places where we could get out and stretch our legs, or even hike a mile or two.

I never did see a Golden Eagle, but we saw quite a few hawks…and we are pretty sure the horses we saw were Kiger Mustangs.

Kiger Mustangs are a strain of horse  that was discovered here in the 1970s during a round up of other herds.  It is believed that these particular horses are the closest descendants of the original Spanish herd that was brought over in the 17th century. They live here and are cared for by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management).





So, in the end we enjoyed the drive, although getting down off the mountain wasn’t my idea of fun. We did arrive back at the RV park in time to have a drink in the saloon before dinner. This RV Park is in the middle of nowhere, but it does have a restaurant, bar, store, and gas station.

Our next stop along the way was another “town” in the middle of nowhere- Christmas Valley. Smoke is the topic of conversation everywhere we go, and it sure is doing some strange things to the sky.

There are several things to explore in this area. The first thing we did was find Crack In The Ground. This is a 2 mile long volcanic fissure. In some places it is just 5-15 deep, but other areas can be more than 70 ft deep.














Part of the time we could hike down inside it, and part of the time we hiked along side, looking down into it. And, there were times when Paul was down inside, and I elected to stay topside (although the picture was obviously taken when I was inside).

After a couple of hours, we were done, and headed down the “road”.  We were going to a fire lookout that is open to the public.  Once there, we spent an hour talking to the guy working there.  He was interesting, but after about an hour, he must have felt like we were old friends, because he started sharing some semi-bizarre theories of his.  Time to leave.

We had a visit to Derrick Cave on our agenda but the fire guy told us there was a collapse in it a few days ago, so that took it off our bucket list.  Instead we headed to Ice Cave. This cave breathes a fair amount, and just standing next to it felt like someone had turned on the air conditioner- very nice, since it was 90* outside.  The cave temperature is a cool 42*.  The opening was a little small for someone with claustrophobia, so Paul went down on his own.  He just peeked his head in and around the corner.

Moving on from there, our next stop was Bend, OR where we were getting new tires put on the trailer.   We had ordered the tires in advance and checked to see that they were in.  We did a drive by the day before, because being a city, we don’t always trust someone who says “No problem, we have plenty of room for your trailer!”

The guys were very impressed that we could “float” the trailer- using our jacks to lift all 4 tires off the ground at the same time- it saved them some time, and us too.

After 6 years and 49,857 miles, we have brand spanking new Michelins on the trailer. Now we just have to hang hang around until its time for the alignment, in Grants Pass, OR.

But Paul is out there!!!!!!