This week was adventure time for Tim and I. We took a drive out into Eastern Central Oregon to check out the infamous "Painted Hills". It was hot, it was awesome, I took lots of pictures as always.
Here we are with our amazing handcrafted walking sticks that Tim's dad made us (Thanks Doug!!)
These painted hills are a result of volcanic activity and erosion. There was a strong wind out in this area that I have no doubt has been part of the unique erosion that left this land so beautiful. Particular metal oxides in the layers of earth create the red, yellow, brown and black stripes.
The pigments in the earth here are the same that I have been experimenting with to make colored prints in my glass creations! I could actually look at the hills and say "that reddish stripe is from iron oxide!"
The volcanic activity in this area caused a hard natural glass to form as a top crust on this interesting layered land. After erosion the volcanic glass top layer remains - creating a really amazing landscape.
It was so hot out in the desert, all the campsites were empty and there were signs everywhere that said "No Fires!". So we continued driving and found an amazing campsite on the East side of Mt. Hood called "Clear Creek". Camping is just not as fun without a big campfire!
And in the morning we were visited by two cows that came to check out the creek by our campsite and the ran accross the water and grazed on some grass in a field. Wildlife!
Here I am sitting on the beautiful Clackamas River... playing my orange Ukulele. It was so nice to wake up to the sound of water flowing in this river and there were two blue jays playing in the trees around us. In the morning while Tim made tea and played with the campfire, I went down to the river and sat on the rocks and played with my Ukulele (there was also plenty of fire-side Ukulele time, but I have no picture of this) I can now play the Beatles song "Honey Pie" while singing along, sorta :)
Here's our campsite at Kingfisher, this is the closest camp to Bagby Hotsprings and it was really a little piece of heaven. We camped right on the river and it was quiet and private. We drove over to the Hotsprings parking lot late at night and hiked in the dark (this was a first for me - I knew they had candle holders in the tub rooms, but I'd never been there at night) and it was actually very nice. It was not scary and the people there were the same goofy crowd that goes during the day (I was apprehensive). In fact it was kinda crowded! We stayed till about midnight and then hiked back out. The one thing I didn't like about the night soaking was that it was harder to apreciate the amazing beauty of that hike when it was dark. Even with flashlights and a big bright moon it was still not as pretty as during the day.
Pancakes on the fire. They were spectacular (Bob's Red Mill 10 grain pancake mix)
I used to use that blue camping chair in my booth while vending my artwork... the cup holders in the arms are full of these weird little religious cards that this guy used to hand out on Sunday mornings. I would always just take them and stuff them in the cup holders. They are sorta weird, they have a little message on the front and then the cardboard is perforated and once torn open there is a saying on the inside and a scripture on the back of the flap... and a picture of a duck or a puppy and things like that. I just thought I'd throw in that little tid-bit of random info for all the fellow vendors of mine that might read my blog. Remember these little religious cards?!
This video is just me playing around with the camera... we had a lot of fun hiking the river, at one point Tim found a spot he could cross it and I caught it with my continuous-shot picture action :)
