Cathy and I left work early and drove up to Gettysburg this afternoon. We went to Dorothy’s house first and then a little later to downtown Gettysburg where Dorothy and Andrew would be playing this evening at Ploughmans Taproom. There were to be two sets, with Dorothy on stage by herself for the first and then with Andrew joining her for the second. She played two covers (Miner’s Lullaby, by Utah Phips and All My Tears, by Emmylou Harris) but the majority of her songs were original. I recorded all of the first set but only a couple from the second, when I took a few pictures instead. This image is a frame from a song called Lemon Creek, which we really enjoyed.
Dorothy at Ploughmans
Grand Tetons Puzzle
We’re back from Oregon, having had a really nice time. We enjoyed being with Brian and Lisa, we enjoyed the scenery in Central Oregon, and we enjoyed not being here. But of course it’s a vacation and it cannot go on for ever. Back home, we finally finished this puzzle. It’s a familiar scene if you’ve seen photos of the Tetons. The T. A. Moulton Barn, located in the southern part of Grand Teton National Park, is what remains of a homestead built by Thomas Moulton and his sons between 1912 and 1945 on what is called Mormon Row. I would really love to visit the Tetons at some point, whether or not we actually go to this barn.
Crooked River
Flowing north into Prineville, Oregon is the aptly named Crooked River. Along it runs Oregon route 27, named the equally aptly named Crooked River Highway. Cathy and I drove out to Prineville this morning and headed south along this beautiful road. We stopped quite a few times to walk down to the river and enjoy the cliffs on the far bank, the beautiful, clear water, and the cool weather we’re having. I have to say, we hit central Oregon at just the right time, temperature wise.
This is a lovely drive and I imagine it gets quite a bit of traffic during the summer and on weekends. I can definitely see coming here to camp and fish. We were doing neither, but still enjoyed it greatly. The first of these images, the panorama made from 10 separate exposures, makes it look like the river is forming a big, horseshoe bend. In actuality, it’s running pretty much straight and then bending the other way in both ends in the distance. The apparent bend is a function of the way the panorama was taken. Still, it’s a pretty nice view, I think.
Valley Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis fitchi)
As mentioned in the previous post, Cathy and I drove up to and walked the Ray Atkeson trail today along Sparks Lake, northeast of Mt. Bechelor. We really enjoyed the walk, although at one point, fairly early in the walk, we came across this valley garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis fitchi). Cathy’s not a huge fan of snakes and although I tried to warn her, I had a hard time getting it out. She saw it, screamed and did a little dance. Although garter snakes have a mild venom in their saliva, which may be toxic to the amphibians and other small animals on which they prey, they are pretty harmless to humans. Also, they are not at all aggressive. This one let me get a few pictures before retreating into the rocks beside the trail.
Sparks Lake
Cathy and I drove up into the mountains west of Bend today. We drove the 25 miles or so to the Dutchman Sno-Park Trailhead, which is also the trailhead for the Tumalo Mountain trail. It is on Southwest Century Drive (OR 372), basically across the road from the Mt. Bachelor ski area. We weren’t sure about hiking that, because Cathy’s hip was bothering her a little and she didn’t want to overdo it and take a risk of making it worse.
As we came back down to the car, Cathy happened to ask me how much gas we had. I hadn’t noticed so I’m glad she asked. We checked and we were well under a quarter of a tank. The nearest gas station was back in Bend so we drove the 20 miles to that, coasting as often as possible, which was not too hard as we were coming down out of the mountains. We made it without incident, filled the tank, and then drove all the way back up and past where we had parked the first time up.
We continued to the four miles to the turnoff for the Sparks Lake Day Use Area. The gravel road going in is very rough, but we were able to avoid the worst of it and made our way to the parking area near the beginning of the Ray Atkeson trail. If you’re in the area, I’d highly recommend this trail. It’s a fairly easy walk with a little bit of it actually paved so it is very accessible. Even after the paving ends, it’s not a difficult hike. We did have some rain, which was a little worrying since I had my camera and long lens, but I was able to keep it mostly dry.
Saturn
A few days ago we saw Saturn near the moon shortly after moonrise. Since then it’s moved a little ways from the moon. Or more precisely the moon has moved a ways relative to Saturn, since it is moving faster in relation to the earth’s rotation). In any case, I was able to get a pretty good shot of it with my long lens zoomed out to 600mm. This was taken at ISO 3200 at f/7.1 for 1/100 second. It isn’t going to win any awards for photos of planets but it’s at least good enough that you can be sure which planet it is.
Sunset Over The Sisters
I wouldn’t normally post two sunset photos in a row, especially when they’re so similar, but I couldn’t resist posting this one. We went up onto Pilot Butte again in the evening (along with quite a few others and we were very lucky to find a parking spot). This is a three-shot panorama, taken with my 100mm lens, looking to the west over Broken Top on the left and then South, Middle, and North Sisters.
Sunset, Bend, Oregon
We had a pretty spectacular sunset this evening. This panorama is stitched together from seven shots taken from in front of Brian and Lisa’s house, which faces west. The two peaks partially behind trees about a third the way from the left are Middle and North Sister. South Sister is hidden behind the tree on the far left.
Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)
In the late morning Cathy and I drove to Pilot Butte. We had come up here with Brian and Lisa the other day I I tried to get a photo of where they lived but I just missed it. Having consulted a map, I wanted to try again. After doing that, Cathy and I walked a little way down the trail that climbs the butte. We saw this Steller’s jay (Cyanocitta stelleri), moving from the ground, up into a tree, and then back onto the ground again. We also saw a hummingbird of some sort perched on a branch. Google says it’s an Anna’s (Calypte anna) but my photo isn’t quite sharp enough to be able to identify it conclusively. But I’m pretty pleased with this shot of the jay.
Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Cathy and I drove to Pine Nursery Park this morning and walked around it. It’s a fairly large park with softball and soccer fields, a disk golf course, pickleball and volleyball courts, as well as a small pond and the Forest Supervisor’s office for the Dwschutes National Forest. The pickleball courts were full with folks from a league playing in a round-robin tournament of some sort. We enjoyed the birds throughout the park and near the pond I was able to get a few nice photos of this adult, male red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). He was one of a large number making a pretty good racket. The pickleball players were making a racket, as well.
Big Obsidian Flow
We visited the Big Obsidian Flow today. It is in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument in the Deschutes National Forest of central Oregon and about 25 miles south of Bend. This, in my opinion, is a must-visit site. My pictures really don’t do the site justice. In fact, the trail up into the flow doesn’t do the site justice, although it’s definitely worth the walk. It’s about seven tenths of a mile, with part of that being a loop up on the flow but you only really get less than 300 yards into the flow, which is close to a mile and a half long. If we return to the area, I’d love to plan a full day hike around the flow, which should be doable.
The Big Obsidian Flow was formed in the volcano’s most recent eruption, about 1,300 years ago. It’s amazing that there are actually trees growing in the flow, although not many. It’s a pretty brutal landscape. Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. Not all of the flow is obsidian, but there are large boulders, some broken into smaller pieces, others still mostly intact. It’s quite remarkable and eerily beautiful.
Painted Hills, Oregon
Today we took a pretty long drive from Bend to the Painted Hills off of US 26 northwest of Mitchell, Oregon. This is part of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. It was an 80+ mile drive north to Redmond and then east through Prineville but it’s a pretty cool place. The main visitor center for the National Monument is another 40 miles or so further along, so we didn’t go there. This is often listed as one of the so called ‘Seven Wonders of Oregon’ although there’s nothing official about that list, which I assume was put together by the tourist bureau. Here’s the list:
- Crater Lake National Park
- Columbia River Gorge
- Oregon Painted Hills
- The Oregon Coast
- Mt Hood
- Smith Rock State Park
- The Wallowa Mountains
We are certainly glad we visited Crater Lake, which I have to agree is in the right spot on the list at number one. Yesterday we went to Smith Rock and I’d probably rank that higher than the Painted Hills, although these are worth a visit. I cannot speak to the other items on the list, not having been to any of them. I suspect I’d rank the Painted Hills either sixth or seventh (since I know nothing about The Wallowa Mountains.
All that being said, we’re glad we came and enjoyed the views. All else being equal, if we traveled to Bend again, we’d return to Smith Rock but probably not to the Painted Hills. We did see (and I did photograph) a Townsend’s solitaire (Myadestes townsendi), a pretty little grey songbird. So that’s something. There are also some trails that we might have hiked that would have made me more likely to want to return, but perhaps I’ll never know.
Smith Rock State Park
This afternoon Brian, Lisa, Cathy, and I drove up to Smith Rock State Park. If you happen to be in the Bend area in Central Oregon, I highly recommend this park. This is especially true if, like us, you live on the east coast and enjoy scenery very different to what you’re used to. One a really hot, sunny day it might be oppressively hot, with all the exposed rock soaking up the sun’s warmth and radiating that back out, but it was quite cool today and that wasn’t a problem.
There were quite a few people there but it’s a pretty large place and most of them are climbing, so on the trails we saw fewer people than we might have expected. We also didn’t spend as much time there as we might have, since we didn’t arrive until almost 2:30 PM. It was a very clear day and the sky was a deep blue. The colors of the rocks, the green along the Crooked River, and the blue in the sky was a really great combination. If we were to come back to Bend, I think I’d plan a full day here, starting early in the morning and bringing a picnic lunch. I’d also want to hike up to the top of the rocks in at least one place. But that was more than we had time for on this visit. Still, I don’t regret what we got to do in the least.
Orange-crowned Warbler (Leiothlypis celata)
Cathy and I parked on the Deschutes River and walked upstream today. First we walked in the west bank and that’s where this photo was taken. It is an orange-crowned warbler (Leiothlypis celata) and I’m quite pleased with the photo. We also saw scrub jays and quite a few ducks. At one point I realized I had lost my glasses and we walked back looking for them. We didn’t find them, though. Fortunately the were just drug-store reading glasses. I had brought two pairs but the other pair were broken a few days ago.
Anyway, we headed upstream again, this time crossing a footbridge to the other bank. It was a really nice trail alonv the river, especially after it went into the woods.
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)
My third photo from today is also from the Sun River Nature Center. As mentioned in a post from yesterday, we saw Yellow-rumped warblers (Setophaga coronata) fairly often on our trip. This one, I think, is a better photo than the one I posted yesterday, or I wouldn’t have repeated so soon. From the area where the nature center has its captive birds, we walked part way around the pond and then out into an area of scrub. That’s where this bird was, along with others of the same species. In fact, when it comes to songbirds, this is all we saw here. But it was enough, I suppose. They’re lovely little birds.
Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Bubo bubo)
This morning, Cathy, Lisa, and I drove down to the Sun River Nature Center about 25 minutes south of Bend. It’s a nice, little nature center with a pretty and very peaceful pond in the back. There were swans, as well as ducks and geese on the pond. They have a few birds kept in captivity, including Luna, a Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo). She was hatched at a wildlife center in 2020 and was brought to Sun River Nature Center at the age of one month. Because she grew up with significant human contact, she is very comfortable with the staff and volunteers. She’s also beautiful.
California Quail (Callipepla californica)
I’ve been waking up fairly early, partly because we’re in a time zone three hours later than home, but also partly because it’s what I do. In the early morning I do one or more of reading, editing photos from the previous day, and writing in my journal. This morning, after the sun came up but before we went out, I noticed a small flock of California quail (Callipepla californica) in the garden in front of the house. I took a few photos through the front windows and then risked opening the door to get a few more. Sadly I didn’t take the time to look closely at the camera settings before I did that, so the images were all underexposed by over three stops. I was able to get reasonable images from them, but they aren’t nearly as good as they could have been. We saw them a few more times, but never as close and never when I had the camera handy.
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)
As mentioned in the previous post, we visited the Lava Lands Visitor Center in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument and walked the Trail of the Molten Land trail. Back and the visitor center, there are trails in the trees and we could hear birds all around. I got just a few photos, including this one of a yellow-rumped warbler (Setophaga coronata), which is pretty good. We saw these quite a few times on our trip, so I have to assume they are quite common. Although they are, apparently, in our area on the east coast, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before. So, that’s fun.
After this we drove up the cinder cone (Lava Butte) and enjoyed the view from the top, which was also worth the effort (especially since we were able to drive up so the effort wasn’t all that great).
Lava Lands
Lisa’s car is back from the shop and we picked it up this morning. After dropping Lisa off at home, Cathy and I drove down to the Lava Lands Visitor Center in the Newberry National Volcanic Monument and walked the Trail of the Molten Land. It’s a mile long loop out into the lava flow. The paved trail is fairly easy to walk and worth the effort, getting you out into the flow. It is estimated that the eruption that created this flow was about 7,000 years ago, which in geological terms is pretty recent. It’s hard to get a photograph that captures it, but this one isn’t too bad.
Portrait Of The Artist
As mentioned in the previous post, we went to Tumalo State Park this evening and enjoyed the sunset as well as the large ponderosa pines. Brian took a few pictures with his phone and was messing around with its ‘portrait mode’. He took this portrait of me and I like it quite a bit. In addition to posting it here, I’ve also added it to my “Who Am I” page. I don’t generally like photos of myself but this one is good. As you can see, I’m standing in front of one of the larger ponderosa pines and leaning lightly on my camera with the long, telephoto lens, mounted on a monopod. Up until now, the photo on my Who Am I page has been from 2003, when my beard was still dark. It’s been quite a while since that was true, so I thought it would be a good idea to update the page with something more recent. My forehead has definitely gotten a bit higher but I still have hair on top of my head. In the last two years I’ve let it grow long for the first time since college and it’s not longer than I’ve ever worn it. I’m not sure how long I’ll let that go, but for now, it’s long and curly.