Clarno Unit, John Day Fossil Beds

[AllieBaba]

My weekend (and it started at noon with a short hike with my dog):

Can't wait to start! The weather is beautiful, school is out....we're primed!

 

[Baruch Menachem]

Fossil beds eh? Maybe all you will find is Democrat ideas.

 

[AllieBaba]

Tremendous scenery, smells good, very few people, lots of space.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

Well it sure is a good day to bone up on your history

 

[Mr. H.]

I browsed the NPS site. Looks like awesome territory.

 

[AllieBaba]

Lotsa wildlife stuff...maybe we'll see a horny toad! I love them!

 

[AllieBaba]

We'll go there in the am...we chose to take the bikes and go to a park where we could have a fire and fix dinner tonight. No fires, no bikes @ Clarno. But I'm really looking forward to trekking a good long way. Though every step I think, "This is great but it would be better on horseback."

Oh well.

 

[Mr. H.]

Horses can be overrated. Let your feet do the walking.

 

[dilloduck]

It's a hoax--fossils never slept in beds.

 

[Mr. H.]

It's a hoax--fossils never slept in beds.

This fossil does. And quite tidily I might add.

 

[AllieBaba]

We had a great time hiking today. We went behind the palisades first, and a park person hotfooted after us (and yet didn't catch us until we were on our way back...sheesh I should be a ranger if that's all the faster they have to move) to tell us no dogs. I mean we were hiking a place that nobody hikes much, it isn't even really marked. It's great they're keeping the place safe from women and kids and their big dumb puppies. Anyway, we did have a good hike, we got to yell into the canyons and hear echos; my son got a scare from a garter snake (don't dig in rocks in this country unless you want to find a reptile. Just sayin.)Glad it was a garter snake. Saw coyote crap and elk crap and some unidentified crap...probably also elk.

 

[AllieBaba]

We did the high part up to the palisades in the evening and it was wonderful. Snakes are really active right now; this is one of the first hot weekends and so they're out in force, on the roads and the trails. A couple who had just come down told us they saw a snake; we saw the garter snake in the morning (or at least the boy did) and of course late afternoon is when they start moving around. We saw one on the trail, but it was small and zipped away before I could tell what it was. It didn't look like a rattler to me. We saw two lizards..the lizards are much more friendly and likeable, the kids were tickled with them. Klaus was a champ on the trail. I continue to puzzle the physics law that allows him to jump 10 feet from the middle of the living room to the couch, and climb up steep rocky trails...and yet renders him unable to jump into the back of my Explorer. He was cheerful and game the whole time, so were the kids, it was a great day.

 

[AllieBaba]

No, that's not me or anybody I know, but that's a good pic of the bottom of the trail. We went all the way up, so we were right at the base of the palisades. You go up 150 feet in 1/4 mile from right about where this lady is. It's fun!

 

[Mr. H.]

I hope you carry plenty of water on these hikes.

Or- to lighten the load, many outdoors retailers sell dehydrated water.

 

[AllieBaba]

There's dehydrated water everywhere!
We do carry water. At Clarno there is water at the parking lot, and at the bottom of the palisades trail as well. We carry water for ourselves and the dog in our rig; I refill everything every time we stop anywhere, and when we get out to hike, I encourage Klaus to play in the water (I spray him) so his ears and feet get wet.

I also try to avoid hiking in the true heat of the day, between 11-4, if at all possible. Though honestly, I don't mind the heat. The kids wear hats. I do too if I fear I might fry my brain. We go pretty slow to accomodate my son who likes to dink around, and we take a few minutes whenever we come across shade.

Yesterday we did the first part of Clarno (the..ahem...no-dog hike) around 10:30; and subsequently we didn't go too far. We hiked in maybe an hour or so; that's not very far with little kids and a young dog. I really didn't want to be walking back at noon, at that point the day looked as if it might get really hot.

It didn't, though. It got up to the upper 70s, which was plenty warm but not truly deadly. Just warm enough to get the reptiles going.

 

[daveman]

Looks awesome, Allie!

 

[AllieBaba]

I love it here, I really do. Always have.

Very cool hiking around Los Alamos, NM, too...that's the only place I can think of that I might like just as much, or possibly even...more?