Exploring Central Oregon

[LJ dude]

Back in October some friends and I spent a couple days exploring Central Oregon. Six people, three Jeeps, and one dog. Thats the recipe to a good time!

It was Friday afternoon and were meeting up with one other rig in Vancouver, WA to convoy to Bend, OR together while the third was going to meet up with us later in the evening.

Before we could make it all the way into Oregon, Titan(the dog) puked in my back seat... :| Might be a long trip...
We stopped in Gresham,OR and got that all cleaned up and then headed on.

Titan still not looking good

Driving along hwy 26 through the Mt Hood National Forest I decided to take a short detour to Little Crater Lake.

The Jeeps ready for adventure

Titan looking better after running around for a while

Hwy 97 north of Redmond, OR

We had noticed that Titan was having problems trying to pee. Well up until we got into the hotel and it all came out... With blood... On the white comforter on the bed... Off to the emergency vet we went. Turns out he passed a kidney stone on the bed at the hotel. But he was and is okay.

After the vet we met up with the other four for a late dinner and a couple beers.

Saturday morning after breakfast ready to explore the world!!! Well at least central Oregon.

Moving east on hwy 20

Dirt

More dirt

First stop the Pine Ridge Observatory

The view

The peeps

More dirt and more views

On the road again

Driving along I saw what looked like an old rail car out in the distance. So we had to go and check it out.

Desert stuff

Oil filter

 

[LJ dude]

Moving on

Most everywhere we were at was open range land

Trail head at Derrik Cave

Derrik Cave

More desert

Little house on the prairie

Please close the gates behind you

The convoy ready to roll

I really like the road less traveled

More moo cows

Kenny bring up the rear

Crack in the Ground

The crack

After exploring the crack in the ground it was time for lunch

Titan doing much better after passing his stone

Headed into Christmas Valley, OR for fuel

A little muddy

Drivers and their Jeeps

 

[LJ dude]

We left Christmas Valley and ran pavement all the way to John Day, OR

We rolled into John Day just after 9pm, checked into our rooms, got some grub, drank some beers, checked out some cars, went to bed.

My Jeep

Not my Porsche

On Sunday morning the girlfriend, dog, and I went for a walk through town.

Then on the road we went

Stopping at view points along the way

The crew

Titan and I

Group shot

A little down the hwy we found a shoe tree

The train keeps on a rolling

Stopped in Mitchel, OR for a quick potty break

And then onto the painted hills

And more dirt

Peace bro!

 

[LJ dude]

The views just keep coming

The John Day river

Moving on

Now thats a good sign

Water crossing

Driving on Muddy Creek RD

Headed to Antelope, OR

Stopped at the cafe for lunch

These guys were hanging out in town

Pulled into Shaniko ghost town after lunch
https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1379827_10151920879364841_1949751890_n.jpg

After leaving Shaniko we pulled onto hwy 97 to start heading for home and the Cherokee just died. After messing with it for a while we decided that it was probably the coil.

Called around and found a tow truck in Maupin, OR. The guy also had a shop/parts store so we had him bring out a new coil. It took about an hour for him to arrive but 5 minutes later the Cherokee was up and running!!!

Headed home as the sun was setting

 

[shortbus4x4]

Looks like fun. I need to get down there next summer and do some exploring. Have driven through enough times on 97 and always want to explore but never have time.

 

[SmoothLC]

Nice report. Love that part of Oregon!

 

[Timothynaustin]

Thank you for sharing

Great views and really enjoyed the write up Thank you for sharing.
PS Pleased to Hear Titan is ok
Mans Best friend

 

[INSAYN]

Great pictures. Gets the point across how gorgeous that part of Oregon is. You guys hit a lot of awesome areas in very short amount of time.

Any future plans to go back and camp through the area vs hotel?

 

[java]

Cool! Its a neat area.

 

[TS0405ts]

Great Pictures!! Looks like a nice trip!

 

[2025 deleted member]

Nice report. Imagine the cleaning crews thoughts when they saw the bloody comforter!

 

[seeNik48]

Glad your dog is okay. Kinda scary. We were through that area last April. We took a short cut from east of Fort Rock on BLM/USFS roads to Crack in The Ground, got lost but redirected by a friendly rancher, then took the road through the Lonely Forest (lumpy and bumpy) to the USFS road that goes south to connect with Christmas Valley Road. The only traffic we saw on 395 north was the rural mail carrier. Fine with us.

 

[LJ dude]

Great pictures. Gets the point across how gorgeous that part of Oregon is. You guys hit a lot of awesome areas in very short amount of time.

Any future plans to go back and camp through the area vs hotel?

Yes we covered a lot of ground in a very short amount of time. It was right around the beginning of summer and the sun was out until 9:30-10pm when I was planning this trip. When October came around I realized that I may have over shot some of the distances with the shorter day light hours. lol

I am planning on going back to this area. Lucky for me Central Oregon is a short couple hours from home for me. I will be doing some camping in the future. The main reason for the hotel stays was for some of the others. That part of Oregon at that time of year can be 75-80 degrees out or dumping snow and ice. The weekend before we went out lots of the areas were went had received a light layer of snow. Then it was in the mid 60's during the days while we were there. But the night time temps did drop down around freezing.