AIROSMITH

"Any good poet, in our age at least, must begin with the scientific view of the world; and any scientist worth listening to must be something of a poet, must posses the ability to communicate to the rest of us his sense of love and wonder at what his work discovers."   ~ Edward Abbey Between Bend Oregon and La Grande Oregon you can find the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument .  It covers 40 Million years and over 14,000 acres in three separate park units.  We visited only one of them, the Painted Hills. We based out of the seemingly miss-named Fish House Inn and RV Park in Dayville.  We located in one of their "overflow" sites which despite lacking hookups, was the choice spot in this small park. AIROSMITH in the Painted Hills Our day in the Park was a Ranger led hike into the Blue Basin area.  Here the Ranger explained the volcanic history for the entire area.  There is evidence in this place from eve...

Between visiting friends in Walla Walla and Olympia, Washington we stopped for a visit at Mount Rainier National Park .  Here is the deal about visiting Rainer, you often do not get to see the mountain itself. It is a difficult thing to miss with an elevation of 14,410 and 20 some glaciers.  It is the tallest of the Cascade Volcanos (for the time being!) and the most glaciated peak in the continental United States.  Like many visitors before us, and the many to follow we saw it mostly in clouds. We camped at the Ohanapecosh Campground, on the Southeast side for four nights, and the weekend before the 4th of July.  I think that we keep "lucking" our way into great campsites on holiday weekends.  We dry-camped, giving us a chance to use the solar.  Because it is Washington State, the low clouds required that we use our generator more than relying on the sun! This National Park campground is settled along the Ohanapecosh River, and amo...