Big Obsidian Flow

Photograph taken on Sunday, September 22, 2024 by Henry
Big Obsidian Flow

Big Obsidian Flow

Big Obsidian Flow

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.

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Painted Hills, Oregon

Photograph taken on Saturday, September 21, 2024 by Henry
Painted Hills, Oregon

Painted Hills, Oregon

Painted Hills, Oregon

Painted Hills, Oregon

Lisa, Brian, and Cathy

Lisa, Brian, and Cathy

Townsend's solitaire (Myadestes townsendi)

Townsend’s solitaire (Myadestes townsendi)

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.

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Smith Rock State Park

Photograph taken on Friday, September 20, 2024 by Henry
Smith Rock State Park

Smith Rock State Park

Smith Rock State Park

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.

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Orange-crowned Warbler (Leiothlypis celata)

Photograph taken on Friday, September 20, 2024 by Henry
Warbler (Leiothlypis celata)

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.

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Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)

Photograph taken on Thursday, September 19, 2024 by Henry
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)

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.

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Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Bubo bubo)

Photograph taken on Thursday, September 19, 2024 by Henry
Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Bubo bubo)

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.

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California Quail (Callipepla californica)

Photograph taken on Thursday, September 19, 2024 by Henry
California Quail (Callipepla californica)

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.

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Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)

Photograph taken on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 by Henry
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata)

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).

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Lava Lands

Photograph taken on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 by Henry
Lava Lands

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.

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Portrait Of The Artist

Photograph taken on Monday, September 16, 2024 by Henry
Henry Hartley (September, 2024)

Henry Hartley (September, 2024)

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.

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Tumalo State Park Sunset

Photograph taken on Monday, September 16, 2024 by Henry
Tumalo State Park Sunset

Tumalo State Park Sunset

We had a fairly quiet and restful day today. Lisa’s car is still in the shop, although we’re expecting that it will be ready to be picked up either tomorrow evening or the following morning. After dinner we drove to Tumalo State Park on the Deschutes River north (downstream) from downtown Bend. There were some substantial ponderosa pines and I showed Brian, Lisa, and Cathy that if you smell in the large crevices in the bark it smells like vanilla. Shortly after that we saw a sign that told about the pines and it mentioned the vanilla smell. In addition to the sunset photos, I took some HDR sets of the river which turned out pretty well, although if I had done it sooner they would have had more sunset colors in the sky, which would have improved them.

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California Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica)

Photograph taken on Monday, September 16, 2024 by Henry
California Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica)

California Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica)

Because we didn’t have a vehicle most of the day (Lisa’s is in the shop and Brian had to go in the truck to Sisters for work), Cathy and I walked to a small park in the neighborhood. The most prominent plants in areas that are left to themselves seem to be gray rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa) and sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) along with a few different grasses and some other smaller plants. As for trees, when you get into the hills you find ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa), lodgepole pines (Pinus contorta), grand fir (Abies grandis), western larch (Larix occidentalis), and mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla). In the flat lands east of the mountains, though, the only tree you see most often is the western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis). In the park, moving around in the junipers, were quite a few California scrub jays (Aphelocoma californica). These are a little smaller than the blue jays we have at home (Cyanocitta cristata). Although it’s not as obvious in this photo, they have quite a bit of a very lovely, pale blue on their head, back, and tail.

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The Moon

Photograph taken on Sunday, September 15, 2024 by Henry
The Moon

The Moon

We went up to Sisters today and walked around a farmers market. I bought some flank steak at the Sisters Meat Smokehouse, which I’ll fix in the next day or two. We also went up Pilot Butte in Bend, which is a nice place to get a view of the town and surrounding area. As for the surrounding area, it was fairly hazy and there were clouds so we couldn’t see the tops of Mount Bachelor or the Sisters. To the north we could see Mount Hood, although it looked a bit more like a dark cloud than the top of a mountain. Late in the evening we looked for Saturn, which was in the sky not too far from the moon. I got a few pictures where you can actually see that Saturn has rings, but they aren’t going to win any awards. This photo of the moon won’t, either, but I think it’s a nice shot, anyway.

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Crater Lake

Photograph taken on Saturday, September 14, 2024 by Henry
Henry and Cathy at Crater Lake

Henry and Cathy at Crater Lake

Crater Lake

Crater Lake


Crater Lake

Crater Lake

On the Saturday of our first weekend in central Oregon, we drove down to Crater Lake, about 85 miles (as the crow flies and about 100 miles by road) southsouthwest of Bend, where we were staying. When we got there, we found that the eastern half of the circling road was closed until 4:00 PM to motorized vehicles due to a bicycle event. We were told that we might not be able to find a parking spot, but “have a nice visit”.

As it turned out, we had a nice visit and found parking, although not at first. We found a spot on the western section of Rim Drive and walked on the Rim Trail. That’s where we got our first really good look at the crater and its lake. It’s also where the first two photos presented here were taken. The sun was to the southeast and there was a bit of glare on the lake surface, making it seem less blue that it did later, when we were on the south rim near the Crater Lake Lodge, from whence we could see it in all it’s blue splendor (as in the third photo).

The first twp of these photos are three-shot HDR images. The second and third are both composite panoramas, stitched together with Hugin – Panorama photo stitcher, which I cannot recommend enough. If you ever get the chance to visit Crater Lake, I seriously recommend it. We spent the better part of a day there, even driving part of the eastern half of the Rim Road after it opened. It was still closed between Skell Head and Phantom Ship Overlook for construction, so we were not able to drive all the way around.

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Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)

Photograph taken on Friday, September 13, 2024 by Henry
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)

Lisa dropped Cathy and me off at Drake parke late this morning. We walked up stream and across the wooden bridge at Mirror Pond. Then we turned around and went down stream past another foot bridge near First Street Rapids Park. In Pacific Park, just below the small power station we saw quite a few cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) and I was able to get a few half decent photos. They were mostly high in a tree when not flying so I was looking up at a fairly steep angle, which wasn’t ideal. We do have cedar waxwings at home but we don’t see them often. This is the second time we’ve seen them here in three days, so we were pretty excited.

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Animals at the High Desert Museum

Photograph taken on Thursday, September 12, 2024 by Henry
American River Otter (Lontra canadensis)

American River Otter (Lontra canadensis)


Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis)

Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis)


Common Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum)

Common Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum)


Bobcat (Lynx rufus)

Bobcat (Lynx rufus)

Lisa dropped Cathy and me off at the High Desert Museum south of Bend this afternoon. Going to this sort of place is always a little bit of a risk because you’re paying to get in before you know much about it, even if you’ve looked at their web site. Nevertheless, we decided to take the risk and I’d say it was the right choice.

The indoor exhibits are nice, with life-sized dioramas depicting various scenes of life in the high-desert area of Oregon. There is also a nice art collection, with some really beautiful works. Our interest, though, was more on the natural history of the high desert. There were signs and exhibits that told us about the plants and animals that are found throughout the region. We had already identified the rabbitbush (Ericameria nauseosa and related species) as one of the most abundant and obvious shrubs in the area, since it is blooming just about everywhere. But there were other plants we were not so sure about or that we hadn’t yet seen and identified (in our short time here so far). I particularly like the manzanitas (various Arctostaphylos species). These are seen throughout the grounds of the museum as well as all over the wild areas around Bend.

Outdoors, we first went to see the American river otter (Lontra canadensis) exhibit. There were three otters and they were very actively swimming around, coming up onto the shore and posing for us. I got a few nice shots of one standing up and looking around, as well as some close ups, like this one. We saw quite a few golden-mantled ground squirrels (Callospermophilus lateralis) as well as quite a few chipmunks (Neotamias species), all running around in the woods.

Back inside we saw Juniper, a female common porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) and a bobcat (Lynx rufus), both of which were beautiful, even if in captivity for whatever reason. The museum isn’t really cheap but for us, we considered it worthwhile, especially if you’re new to the high desert. It’s a nice introduction to the natural history of the region.

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Drake Park, Bend, Oregon

Photograph taken on Wednesday, September 11, 2024 by Henry
Drake Park, Bend, Oregon

Drake Park, Bend, Oregon

Cathy and I took a late 40th anniversary trip to visit our dear friends, Brian and Lisa in Bend, Oregon. I didn’t take any pictures on our flight day. Our first full day we didn’t do too much, dealing with jet lag and such. Lisa took us downtown and we walked on the Deschutes River through Drake Park. We saw a flock of cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum). The river is artificially wide and slow here because there is a small hydroelectric dam just below here. The park has really nice trees, mostly ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa), which is the predominant tree in the area, but there are also some quite large spruce trees (Picea species) and a large willow (Salix species).

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Harmonica Suitecase

Photograph taken on Saturday, September 07, 2024 by Henry
Harmonica Suitecase

Harmonica Suitecase

We went up to the National Apple Museum in Biglerville today for the Harvest Festival put on by The Hartley Residence. There were three groups playing, Chuck Darwin and the Knuckle Draggers, Dream Home, and Public Disco Porch. My grandfather played the harmonica and I always enjoyed his music so I chatted briefly with Billy Jones of Chuck Darwin after their set. This is his suitcase of harmonicas.

The three groups were very differenct, ranging from bluegrass to rock and roll with Hadley of Dream Home in between. I’m not sure how to categorize her music, but I plan to become more familiar with it via her two CDs.

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Cabin and Pond

Photograph taken on Monday, September 02, 2024 by Henry
Cabin and Pond

Cabin and Pond

We went up to Pennsylvania for Labor Day today. We drove and walked around a little at the Gettysburg Battlefield, first stopping at the visitor center and then going to the Peach Orchard. We met Dorothy at Presidents Coffee, getting there about the time she got off work. We went to Home Depot and bought lumber for porch railings and the stairs in the cabin and then went to the property. After unloading the lumber we took a walk through the woods to the big tree and back and this photo was taken then. We had a lovely dinner of salmon with Dorothy and her housemates before returning home late in the evening.

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Red-spotted Purple and Tufted Titmouse

Photograph taken on Saturday, August 31, 2024 by Henry
Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax)

Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax)

Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)

Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)

We went to great falls this afternoon and walked on the Goldmine Loop and then the Woodland Trail and back by the Burma Road, and finally down to the towpath and back to the parking area. The woods were quiet and it was a very nice walk. We didn’t see or even hear many birds in the woods but it was still really pleasant, if a bit warm and humid. We saw a butterfly that I didn’t recognize. Looking it up after getting home I found that it’s a red-spotted purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax). I think it’s a beautiful butterfly in the genus Limenitis, the admirals and viceroy butterflies.

When we were on the Burma Road over Widewater we saw a cormorant and then down on the canal we saw more butterflies and a few little grey birds in the cattails. At first we couldn’t figure out what it was but then one hopped up onto a blade in plain sight and we could tell that they were tufted Titmice (Baeolophus bicolor).

I would definitely walk this trail again. I think it would be especially nice in the spring.

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