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dragon_moon) wrote2009-07-17 01:57 pm
dragon_moon) wrote2009-07-17 01:57 pm
Entry tags:
Eastern Oregon trip
Wow! A vacation sure does a body good! ^__^
Part of the family went on a trip to Eastern Oregon this week - my grandfather has been talking about the round barn that was built over 100 years ago, and how interesting it was that this rancher had decided to build a round barn for breaking in his draft horses and such. So we finally got organized and went to see it! With the added bonus of seeing part of the Malheur Wildlife preserve and possibly the Steens Mountains (home of the Kiger Mustangs, you know!).
It ended up being my grandparents, my sister and mother, my cousin and me going on the trip. We left fairly early Wednesday morning. Had a nice morning drive - saw a couple of coyotes near Sisters! Lots and lots of visiting on Wednesday. LOL. We stopped for lunch in Bend at Black Bear Diner and we all really enjoyed it. Good food, and lots of fun bear stuff! Very creative and fun.
Let's just say that the stretch of road between Bend and Burns (160 miles, maybe?) is a really, really long stretch! LOL. There's a whole lot of nothing to look at, though we really did make an effort to enjoy the sagebrush and random cattle sightings - but after the first hour, it's a bit repetitive. haha! And, of course, there was construction on that stretch and it went even slower. But we finally made it to Burns - the BLM's wild horse corrals are right off the road before you make it to town! Didn't realize that, but we hoped we'd be able to check that out on the way home. Anyway, we can vouch that Verizon's GPS on the phone is completely fabulous! Found our hotel without any issues, and that's always a bonus. ;o)
We crashed for a little bit and recovered from the road. The Harney County Museum was right across the road, and my cousin went over to check out their hours. They were actually closing in ten minutes, but were completely and absolutely wonderful and volunteered to stay open for us. Amazing! Such a neat little museum - they focus a lot on the Peter French story, since he was the area's first huge cattle baron and created the round barns in our area, but had a lot of other fascinating stuff in there. The taxidermy specimens in there were very well done - the golden eagle was amazing. The bird diorama was very neat, though the next day I couldn't remember all the names. lol. Neat bird egg display, saddles, and so on. Anyway, I'm not big on museums, but if you're ever in Burns you really should check it out. Pretty darn cool. ^__^
Afterwards we went out for dinner at The Pine Room - delicious! Everyone liked what they got, and my sister and cousin said if you like spicy burgers they had an excellent one of chorizo, ground pork & ground beef. We then proceeded to crash for the night.
The next morning we got a nice and early start. Got to hear the wonderful music of three Harley's too - *happy sigh*. Our first stop was the Round Barn Visitor Center, where we found some really fabulous gifts and a wonderful host. Papa enjoyed visiting with him (Mr Jenkins), while the rest of us perused the store. Our sink stopper had broken last week, so I found a really cool one with a steer head on it, and a neat walking stick. Grandma found a book on the Nisqually tribe - she said that she's 1/16th Nisqually and Papa is probably 1/16th Cherokee. Anyway, you don't hear about the Nisqually that often so it was neat to find an informative book with lots of pictures. Mr. Jenkins was pretty entertaining - he said that some of the information that is listed for the barn is actually incorrect, because instead of asking the family how the barn was used, they just guessed in some areas. Anyway, I don't remember what all he said but he was a lot of fun. If we go back, I'd like to take one of his tours - you'd learn about the area and have a good time doing it.
We then went to the last remaining Round Barn. (Mr Jenkins said there were three originally, and since his family bought the ranch or at least that part of it I figure they should know.) It actually still looks in pretty good shape and is a neat place to visit. However, we were really surprised to find that there were a ZILLION mosquitoes *inside* the barn! They're never in the shade here, but that sure is where they liked to hang out. So, I didn't stay very long inside the barn at all, but Mom got some really cool shots of the interior. LOL. So, if you should visit, take mosquito repellent! The roof work is really impressive, and it's just neat architecture. The bunny was far, far more cute than the mosquitoes. So, that was the only disappointment about our visit there, that actually seeing the building was uncomfortable. Still, it was pretty neat.
Mr. Jenkins had recommended a little gravel drive going through the Preserve itself, and then going over to the Long Barn. Apparently, the Round barn was for the drafters and mules, while the Long barn was for the saddle horses and milk cows. We hadn't heard that part before. So, that's what we did. I enjoyed it, but I think Papa wasn't that impressed with the birds. LOL. Granted, there weren't that many right next to the road, but there may have been more if we'd gone a little slower on occasion. hehe. Regardless, we did get to see a big mule deer buck so that made it worth it for everyone! Gorgeous. Thankfully, Mom's camera has a great zoom lens and we did actually get some pictures of him! (Hmm, no pictures online of the Long Barn, and I can't find the reference in this article, but it's still a good read. Anyway, then we made it to the Long Barn, which is just so. lol. Anyway, I have no idea about it architecturally, except I noticed barn swallows and less mosquitoes there! We got majorly distracted by finding a doe inside the barn, and then as she ran outside and away with an adorable spotted fawn, we then saw that there was a young buck inside too! SO COOL! So we stayed there for a little bit and watched him - so amazing to see them so close like that! Then the doe came back in and chased him around - he'd jump over the inside wall into what probably used to be the stall areas, then finally she got him chased outside and away from us. LOL. It was awesome!
As much as we would have enjoyed touring the Steens Mountains themselves, we didn't really want to stay another night and so didn't have time for that. So, perhaps we'll have to visit again in the future. ;o)
So we headed back to Burns, and then on to home. We did stop at the BLM Horse Corrals on the way home, and were disappointed to see that the gate was being shut. We asked the lady there if they were closed, and she said they had some emergencies and such and had to go out, but again she was super SUPER nice and let us go in for the quick auto-tour so we could drive around and see the horses at least! We ran into some really nice people over there (which reminds me, we ran into G, who used to work with my family back in the early 80's! It is such a small world sometimes!). Anyway, so we got to drive around the corrals and see the mustangs - lots of really nice looking ones, and some adorable foals! There were even a couple who were out loose on the driveway out back - afterwards we found out that they were the ones the stockmen would use in the roundups and such, so they were their riding horses. Really, really nice looking. *happy sigh* So glad that we were able to go in and see them, and having thoughts again of how to make it work. If we could find someone we could afford who was willing to start one, we could finish training one. But we'd have to have someone else get it past the bucking and totally-green stage. LOL. Anyway, who knows. But it's fun to think about!
So, there was our trip to Eastern Oregon! Had a nice drive home, though it was a really looong day. It's actually quite beautiful country over there, though certainly different than the Willamette Valley! We had a good time and it was great fun.
Part of the family went on a trip to Eastern Oregon this week - my grandfather has been talking about the round barn that was built over 100 years ago, and how interesting it was that this rancher had decided to build a round barn for breaking in his draft horses and such. So we finally got organized and went to see it! With the added bonus of seeing part of the Malheur Wildlife preserve and possibly the Steens Mountains (home of the Kiger Mustangs, you know!).
It ended up being my grandparents, my sister and mother, my cousin and me going on the trip. We left fairly early Wednesday morning. Had a nice morning drive - saw a couple of coyotes near Sisters! Lots and lots of visiting on Wednesday. LOL. We stopped for lunch in Bend at Black Bear Diner and we all really enjoyed it. Good food, and lots of fun bear stuff! Very creative and fun.
Let's just say that the stretch of road between Bend and Burns (160 miles, maybe?) is a really, really long stretch! LOL. There's a whole lot of nothing to look at, though we really did make an effort to enjoy the sagebrush and random cattle sightings - but after the first hour, it's a bit repetitive. haha! And, of course, there was construction on that stretch and it went even slower. But we finally made it to Burns - the BLM's wild horse corrals are right off the road before you make it to town! Didn't realize that, but we hoped we'd be able to check that out on the way home. Anyway, we can vouch that Verizon's GPS on the phone is completely fabulous! Found our hotel without any issues, and that's always a bonus. ;o)
We crashed for a little bit and recovered from the road. The Harney County Museum was right across the road, and my cousin went over to check out their hours. They were actually closing in ten minutes, but were completely and absolutely wonderful and volunteered to stay open for us. Amazing! Such a neat little museum - they focus a lot on the Peter French story, since he was the area's first huge cattle baron and created the round barns in our area, but had a lot of other fascinating stuff in there. The taxidermy specimens in there were very well done - the golden eagle was amazing. The bird diorama was very neat, though the next day I couldn't remember all the names. lol. Neat bird egg display, saddles, and so on. Anyway, I'm not big on museums, but if you're ever in Burns you really should check it out. Pretty darn cool. ^__^
Afterwards we went out for dinner at The Pine Room - delicious! Everyone liked what they got, and my sister and cousin said if you like spicy burgers they had an excellent one of chorizo, ground pork & ground beef. We then proceeded to crash for the night.
The next morning we got a nice and early start. Got to hear the wonderful music of three Harley's too - *happy sigh*. Our first stop was the Round Barn Visitor Center, where we found some really fabulous gifts and a wonderful host. Papa enjoyed visiting with him (Mr Jenkins), while the rest of us perused the store. Our sink stopper had broken last week, so I found a really cool one with a steer head on it, and a neat walking stick. Grandma found a book on the Nisqually tribe - she said that she's 1/16th Nisqually and Papa is probably 1/16th Cherokee. Anyway, you don't hear about the Nisqually that often so it was neat to find an informative book with lots of pictures. Mr. Jenkins was pretty entertaining - he said that some of the information that is listed for the barn is actually incorrect, because instead of asking the family how the barn was used, they just guessed in some areas. Anyway, I don't remember what all he said but he was a lot of fun. If we go back, I'd like to take one of his tours - you'd learn about the area and have a good time doing it.
We then went to the last remaining Round Barn. (Mr Jenkins said there were three originally, and since his family bought the ranch or at least that part of it I figure they should know.) It actually still looks in pretty good shape and is a neat place to visit. However, we were really surprised to find that there were a ZILLION mosquitoes *inside* the barn! They're never in the shade here, but that sure is where they liked to hang out. So, I didn't stay very long inside the barn at all, but Mom got some really cool shots of the interior. LOL. So, if you should visit, take mosquito repellent! The roof work is really impressive, and it's just neat architecture. The bunny was far, far more cute than the mosquitoes. So, that was the only disappointment about our visit there, that actually seeing the building was uncomfortable. Still, it was pretty neat.
Mr. Jenkins had recommended a little gravel drive going through the Preserve itself, and then going over to the Long Barn. Apparently, the Round barn was for the drafters and mules, while the Long barn was for the saddle horses and milk cows. We hadn't heard that part before. So, that's what we did. I enjoyed it, but I think Papa wasn't that impressed with the birds. LOL. Granted, there weren't that many right next to the road, but there may have been more if we'd gone a little slower on occasion. hehe. Regardless, we did get to see a big mule deer buck so that made it worth it for everyone! Gorgeous. Thankfully, Mom's camera has a great zoom lens and we did actually get some pictures of him! (Hmm, no pictures online of the Long Barn, and I can't find the reference in this article, but it's still a good read. Anyway, then we made it to the Long Barn, which is just so. lol. Anyway, I have no idea about it architecturally, except I noticed barn swallows and less mosquitoes there! We got majorly distracted by finding a doe inside the barn, and then as she ran outside and away with an adorable spotted fawn, we then saw that there was a young buck inside too! SO COOL! So we stayed there for a little bit and watched him - so amazing to see them so close like that! Then the doe came back in and chased him around - he'd jump over the inside wall into what probably used to be the stall areas, then finally she got him chased outside and away from us. LOL. It was awesome!
As much as we would have enjoyed touring the Steens Mountains themselves, we didn't really want to stay another night and so didn't have time for that. So, perhaps we'll have to visit again in the future. ;o)
So we headed back to Burns, and then on to home. We did stop at the BLM Horse Corrals on the way home, and were disappointed to see that the gate was being shut. We asked the lady there if they were closed, and she said they had some emergencies and such and had to go out, but again she was super SUPER nice and let us go in for the quick auto-tour so we could drive around and see the horses at least! We ran into some really nice people over there (which reminds me, we ran into G, who used to work with my family back in the early 80's! It is such a small world sometimes!). Anyway, so we got to drive around the corrals and see the mustangs - lots of really nice looking ones, and some adorable foals! There were even a couple who were out loose on the driveway out back - afterwards we found out that they were the ones the stockmen would use in the roundups and such, so they were their riding horses. Really, really nice looking. *happy sigh* So glad that we were able to go in and see them, and having thoughts again of how to make it work. If we could find someone we could afford who was willing to start one, we could finish training one. But we'd have to have someone else get it past the bucking and totally-green stage. LOL. Anyway, who knows. But it's fun to think about!
So, there was our trip to Eastern Oregon! Had a nice drive home, though it was a really looong day. It's actually quite beautiful country over there, though certainly different than the Willamette Valley! We had a good time and it was great fun.