Ochoco Divide Campground, Painted Hills, John Day Country, August 17

Sunday morning we prepared to leave the Bend Elks Club but got a little later start.  Joel hooked up the truck but my job is to put it in neutral and apply the auxiliary brake and I was having difficulty getting the transfer case to disengage to neutral.  The owner's manual is very explicit in the steps to put the truck in neutral for towing.  It turned out you have to follow the sequence exactly as set forth in the manual, i.e. step on the parking brake then the brake not the other way around.  Finally, we were on our way towards Oregon's scenic by way "Journey into the Past "  aka known as the John Day Highway.  Our plan was to stop at one of the snow parks on the Ochoco Divide. One snow park was a rest area and one snow park seemed OK but was merely a pull off on a logging road and the other snow park was locked up.  (We later determined it was in the middle of a heavy burn and tree cutting area).

We headed to the Ochoco Divide Forest Service Campground. Our literature stated there was a RV limit of 24' but we checked it out and there were several site suitable for the Beaver.  We set up and headed out to explore. The John Day Fossil Bed  National Monument, Painted Hills section is a few miles down the canyon. It was later in the day, but I wanted to go later in the day to catch good light for photos.  I've been to the Painted Desert in Arizona and was expecting similar geography. The Painted Hills are different in that they are smaller and smoother in construction in appearance.  There are several short trails to explore in order to see the hills and we managed to explore all be one.  It was really hard to chose just a few photos for the blog.  The sky was very hazy due to  forest fires and it was difficult to pull out the blue ski so some of the photos are a little off. 

 There are frequent signs reminding folks to please not walk on the fragile hills. However it looks like some people can't read.  Note the trail behind the sign.

The Cove

Red Hill 

The hills are very close and touchable.  The soil looks like popcorn.  We spent another day at the campground, but the sites were not good for solar and had to move one.  Nice quiet campground, though.