High Desert Tour Day One

Yesterday’s High Desert Tour began at the Maryhill Stonehenge (actually in Maryhill, Washington NOT Oregon but, ya know, CLOSE!). You may well be wondering Stonehenge? ‘the fuck?! Isn’t that in…like…England or some such?  Yes, yez, meine Freunde, it is. THIS Stonehenge is a full size replica and was:

Erected as the nation’s first WWI memorial and dedicated in 1918 to the servicemen of Klickitat County, Washington, who died in the service of their country during the Great War, Hill’s Stonehenge Memorial is a monument to heroism and peace.

Hill erroneously believed that the original Stonehenge was constructed as a place of human sacrifice. Concluding there was a parallel between the loss of life in WWI and the sacrifices at ancient Stonehenge, he set out to build a replica on the cliffs of the Columbia as a reminder of those sacrifices and the “incredible folly” of the war. (source)

It was, by the by, commissioned by Sam Hill who is not necessarily the same as “what in SAM HILL is that” fame

Impressive as all hell.

The gentleman, above right , just FYI, is Ten Bears AKA Sky...SQUEEEEEEEE!). Yup, my handsome tour guide and squeeze decided to come outta the nom de plumey shadows. (SQUEEEEEEEE!)

After buzzing around the grasslands we dropped down into the Badlands. Oregon has a Badlands...who knew?!

The place is chockfull of fascinating as fuck geological shit (to be all technical about it).

At right... here, I'll have Ten describe it:

This is the intersection of at least three distinct geological, not just volcanic, events. The core, though old (older) lava, is an example of continental upthrusting, where the floor suddenly decided to reach for the sky, the tectonic plates through collision or whatever rise or fall and get a all cockeyed. Subsequently over-run by two distinct though of the same near-time lava flows and then still later the river split the mountain, with one side sliding away. Note the light green flows near horizontal just below the anomaly, unseen here is the same flow on the other side of the river at about forty-five degrees, and a hundred or more feet lower.

This shit's wild as fuck! I swear I'm not making the most sophisticated impression on Ten. I seem to be in a permanent state of slack jawed wonderment.

After all this (which included the White River Falls, driving along the Deschutes River and past some awesome lava vents – pics below) we motored down to his home in Bend (WHAT a KA-YOOT town!). Bend is also home to 27 (!!!) craft breweries.

What's on tap for today? We're chillin' after all the driving yesterday. Also too, my bean needs a break from all this mindblowing landscape. Whether I get that break remains to be seen. We walked out his door and DAY-UM I'm loving the architecture – a lot of arts and crafts style homes.

More tomorrow!