NW Loop Day 17 - fossils

Fossils abound in a particular areas of Oregon known as the John Day Fossil Beds, and a wide areas surrounding the fossil beds. The total area is around 20000 square miles or 51800 square kilometers.  To make sure we could do more than just see the Palaeontology Center L and I got a lift with a few others to the Center. After viewing the film about the beds and examining the exhibits we rode a few miles down the road and then walked into an area known as The Blue Basin. I know the vision won't do it justice. It was so alien, so blue, so extraordinary that it is difficult to describe.

We then got back on the road, again smoky from local fires and rode through some amazingly beautiful country, through a basalt gorge to more open country with an uphill struggle to the local shoe tree where we abandoned the bikes and got a lift into town. Good decision, had enough of dry mouth coughing fit the day.

Tonight we are in Mitchell which is a tiny town and looks pretty rundown. It is another town now bypassed by the highway which loses its young people to bigger towns and cannot sustain its own local businesses. Surprisingly those businesses include two cafes. I had lunch at the Little Pine cafe next door to the hotel and it was delicious, cold beer and BLT of the first order.
A quick and through town, a chat on the hotel verandah, a walk across the highway to one of Patty's marvelous dinners and the day is done. Bed by eight is becoming an ingrained practice.