Day 10 - From Sagebrush to Forests

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  Sisters, Oregon
Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Ontario, Oregon is a small town just inside the Oregon state line that is chuck full of motels and hotels. Our intended RV park stop is in this town but after the long drive across Idaho we decided to stay in a motel for an easy and relaxing evening. A big bed, a really nice shower and dinner at Denny's was a nice break from camping. Not that our form of camping is roughing it but this motel interlude was a nice break.
Our destination today is a town in the volcanic region of Oregon. My original route had us taking a more southern route but we switch to this route straight west after a conversation with a guy in Minnesota. This guy did some surveying in the Sisters region a few years ago and told us that the region is very beautiful and the route that we planned was mostly desert. He was right - the drive out of Ontario was very pretty with terrain that was not tree covered but sagebrush covered. The big difference in the look of this Oregon region and the other high plains areas we have been to is the proliferation of colour. Oregon is a very colourful area both in the plains and the forested areas.
We traveled on secondary highways through a number of small towns which slowed us down a bit, but it gave us a sense of local history and a chance to meet some folks. On one stretch of the plains section we saw a fire burning near the summit of a very high hill. It didn't look as though is was being put out but we couldn't see it burning to far afield to be much of a problem.
Later in the day we started to get into more mountainous and forested regions. The areas of transition from plains to mountains was spectacular as the road threaded its way through deep chasms and twisting grades.
Before too long we were completely surrounded by stands of large (we think) yellow pines. The air had a sweet, piney smell and we just loved it. It was a welcome break from hundreds of miles driving across the barren open range. We were seeing logging trucks all over and the forest looked very healthy. Wherever logging was being done it looked as though they were taking care not to trash the place.
Late in the afternoon we started to catch glimpses of the Three Sisters Volcanoes. This is where we would be camping. A little research told me that the last eruption happened about 19 000 years ago. If you zoom into the map that has the Pin at Sisters you will be able to see the three volcanoes located south west of the town (use the hybrid view on the map). We were happy to pull into the town of Sisters but not too happy with our KOA staff. The store closed at 6:00 pm, the pool was not in service, WiFi didn't work in our campsite and the ladies washroom was flooded out. The clerk offered no solution to the flooded out loo other than the janitor will look at in the morning. Wendi is going to write KOA a "letter". After settling in we had a good night.
We were very impressed by the quality of Oregon's highways - even on the small, secondary routes we were traveling on. We thought their one word highway signs were quite comical too. Signs like "ROCKS" , "ELK" , "CONGESTION"  and numerous signs reminding motorists of the most basic of highway rules "DO NOT PASS WITH SOLID LINE IS IN YOUR LANE" and "RIGHT LANE IS FOR RIGHT TURNS" when approaching an intersection. Oh well, whatever it takes to keep the peace.

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