Central Oregon

Weird and Wild #Oregon: Flat Iron Trail #Explore

Oregon, Weird and Wonderful / By /

The Flat Iron Trail is part of the Badlands Wilderness. A few miles south of Bend, Oregon, off Highway 20, it’s an easy drive. The trail is relatively flat, but be warned, it gets very hot and there isn’t much shade.

There are great views of the Cascades, and in the spring, the desert comes alive with wildflowers. The ancient juniper forest i-s unique, and the entire network of trails is a true taste of the Central Oregon high desert.

A plus to the pleasant scenery is the peace and quiet. The trails aren’t heavily used, and you rarely see another person. It’s nice to spend some time alone with nature.

 

 

 

 

The Season of Monsters is Here! The Rifters Box Set #99c Sale! #fantasy #ebook

Fantasy, Sale, Science Fiction Books / By /
A JUNCTION BETWEEN THE WORLDS ERUPTS

Every summer solstice, a rift opens in a small Oregon town, letting monsters visit. The Rifters defend us.

Ebook available at all retailers

Rifters Box 1-3                Buy Direct

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A monstrous secret hides in the backwoods of a remote western town—a portal connecting our world to forty-two other universes. The visitors—most would call them terrifying—often have devastating effects. Their destruction hasn’t been intentional… until lately. The usual band of protectors, The Rifters, defend us with daring and weapons built from coils, gears, and crystals, which is no longer enough. Earth’s survival depends on an outlaw from 1888 and a librarian with a knack for ghosts.

The Rifters Box Collection includes: The Rifters, The Initiate, and The Reader.

The Rifters: Daelin Long moves to Settler, Oregon, after being laid off from her job and robbed at gunpoint in New York City. County librarian isn’t her dream job, but she’s excited to reconnect with her younger sister. Only, her sister is missing and there’s a phantom stealing heads. The town is plain weird and gets worse when Daelin stumbles upon its deepest secrets.

The Initiate: Daelin Long joins the Rifters in hopes of finding her lost sister. Instead, she finds a swarm of killer bees like no other. These bees start off as pebbles and sting like fire. Her first lesson is to trust her fellow Rifters absolutely. Daelin does, but they can’t trust her. She has her sister’s secrets to keep.

The Reader: Daelin Long rises in the ranks of the Rifters. The rift closes for the season, and Daelin worries over her sister stuck on the other side. With the rift closed, the town should be quiet. Only, it’s not. Dead people are coming to life, and those who should be around are missing. Daelin and the Rifters must figure out how to fight a monster without the energy of the rift to power their weapons.

 

 

 

 

A Spring Trip to Sand Spring: Wonderful and Weird #Oregon #Explore

Oregon, Weird and Wonderful / By /

What’s great about 4-wheel drive? When I see a sign to an offbeat place on a dirt road, I can go see what’s there. That was the case when we saw the sign for Sand Spring.

“Well, let’s go see what’s there,” we said.

Not everything is as it’s advertised, but there was actually a spring there.

An unseen spring trickles water to the fenced pond. Sagebrush shrubland borders the pond, and dry forest surrounds the shrubland. It’s a long way to the next drink, so this site draws wildlife like a magnet.

We saw some wildlife that wasn’t so spry.

There was some interesting landscape around it. The ground was pebbly and white, which is different than the usually sandy dirt in the high desert.

Close up, it was even cooler.

 

 

 

Weird and Wild Oregon: Paulina Peak #Explore #Oregon

Oregon, Weird and Wonderful / By /

Paulina Peak is located in the Newberry  National Volcano Monument. Newberry Volcano is a large active shield volcano, and Paulina Peak is the highest point of the Newberry Volcano.

From the top, I can see forever, or so it seems.

The rest of the caldera can be seen from the top: the two lakes, the center cone, and the gray patch is the obsidian flow.

And sunrise from the peak is transcending.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mascall Overlook: Wonderful and Weird Oregon

Oregon, Photography, Weird and Wonderful / By /

Oregon is full of volcanic landscapes from different periods in Earth’s history. The Mascall Overlook near John Day, OR, is stunning.

15 million years ago, this was a receding forest being replaced by grasslands. It was populated by horses, camels, and giraffe-deer. Then, as so often happens in Oregon history, a volcano exploded. The upheaval filled the valley with lava and ash and pushed up the plains, creating this unique landscape and capturing the denizens in fossils who weren’t fortunate enough to escape .

Glad we ran across this gem in our wanderings about the state.

 

 

Terminator Pigs of the Badlands: Wonderful and Weird Oregon

Oregon, Photography, Weird and Wonderful / By /

Out in Eastern Oregon is the John Day National Monument, a large parcel of desert land rich with fossils and history predating human existence. It is a beautiful place, and one of the fossils they find in the area are entelodonts, also known as ‘Terminator Pigs.’

I love my dinosaurs, but there were some really interesting and gruesome large mammals that walked the Earth as well. These ‘pigs’ were the size of a buffalo, and look at those teeth! Those do no look friendly.

The extent to which they hunted is widely debated, but those teeth weren’t for eating grass. They lived in the forests and on the plains of North America and Eurasia from the late Eocene to middle Miocene epochs (37.2–15.97 million years ago), existing for about 21.23 million years. Their fossils are quite rare, and I find their existence fascinating to ponder.

Here’s what they probably looked like. I wouldn’t have wanted to meet one.

 

 

 

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