Prineville, Oregon

Along the John Day River

Lunch spot 

Downtown Prineville

The monument was dedicated in 1996 in the memory of nine members of the Prineville Hot Shots, who were among 14 firefighters who died on July 6, 1994, while fighting the Storm King fire outside Glenwood Springs, Colo. It was the nation's third-deadliest wildfire of the past 70 years, at the time.

Crook County RV Park at the fairgrounds

Visited with Sharon my hairdresser who just retired and moved to Prineville.

On our walk, we found this guard dog on duty

Meandering up the Crooked River canyon to Prineville Reservoir

From the top of the dam, looking back the way we came.

Powder House Cove

The water is so low that the boat ramp is high and dry

The only marker stated Historical Building. We think this is the Powder House where the explosives were most likely stored when the dam was being built.

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

An unusual white color stands out amid the tans and reds, indicating a cataclysmic eruption that changed this landscape forever.  Thirty-nine million years ago, a super-heated cloud of volcanic ash and gas flowed across the land, hastening the end of the tropical rainforest that dominated this area for millions of years.

Yellow and red clay layers mark different paleo environments.  Red soils indicate a warm, wet period where swamps were common.  Yellow clays point to a cooler, drier time dominated by hardwood forests.

Colors weave a tapestry of contrasts between ancient times and present landscape.

Light lavender rock is all that remains of an oozing rhyolitic lava flow across the floor of a near-tropical, jungle like forest, about 40 million years ago.

Another fantastic lunch spot

We give this place two thumbs up

With so many things in the area named after John Day we're wondering, who is John Day?
John Day came to Oregon in 1812 as part of an overland expedition to the new Pacific Fur Company post in Astoria.  The once large party split up into small groups before reaching Oregon Territory.  While camped where the mouth of the Mah-hah River meets the Columbia, John Day and Ramsay Crooks were robbed of all their belongings, including clothing.  Luckly they were rescued by a party of trappers also headed to Astoria.  John Day became well known at the trading post.  Whenever others would pass the spot of the incident, they would point out where he had been robbed.  Thus, the Mah-hah River became known as John Day River.  John Day never came here.  It was Thomas Condon who named this area the John Day Fossil Beds because of the river's role as a landmark and its importance in eroding and exposing fossil bearing rock layers.