fossil beds national monument

July 10, 2017

This morning we headed to the Fossil Beds National Monument to explore it with Grammy and Granpy.

There are three different units of the Fossil Beds and today we checked out the Sheep Rock unit.  This is sheep rock in the background.

We headed to the visitor center to check it out and learn about the Fossil Beds.

There was a park ranger out front showing the different types of horse skulls that they have found in this area from different time periods. 

I even got to hold one of the skulls.  I am pretty sure they were replicas of some skulls that they found or I don't think they would have let me hold them.  It was interesting to learn about how the horses were different as the vegetation changed over time.  

We went through the museum, watched a video on the area and how they find the fossils, and got our junior ranger books. 

It is time to leave the visitor center and go explore some more.

We found a picnic table to enjoy our lunch on the lawn of the historic Cant Ranch house.

We weren't able to tour the house today because it was closed, but we could explore the grounds.  Down below they had an orchard to provide fruit!

This was used to help stack hay or something like that.

Their view from the ranch.

They raised sheep here to sheer them for their wool.  This is the barn were they could bring in the moms and her babies.

Just look at that road rash on my cheek from my fall yesterday.  Ouch.  I took it like a champ though.

A shed to store everything.

We headed into the barn to check out the sheep pens.

Baaaa.  I am a lamb!

Now we know how sheep are sheered.

Check our this old truck.  We are really confused on how they drove it since the steering wheel is in the opposite direction of the wind shield.

Hey Granpy did they have trucks like this when you were a kid? Hahahaha just joking!

Next we thought we would drive further north and see the Blue Basin area and go for a hike.

We took a hike on the Island in time trail out to see the blue-green claystones.

It was a hot day out so water breaks were much needed. 

Ahhhh!  Water is so refreshing.

We had fun hiking along the trail.  We found a shady place to rest.

We all caught up to each other.

There are some of the blue-green claystone formations that we heard would be out here.

I have blocked the way across the bridge, nobody is going to get past me.

There were 13 or so bridges that you crossed over on you way to the end of the trail.

I guess the blue-green claystones are supposed to be really good at preserving fossils.

We took a lot more breaks than normal since it was hot out.

So thankful for whatever shade we could find.

There were periodic signs and encapsulated fossils to help us understand better about how the fossils were discovered.

Right up ahead is were we are headed.  It is an amphitheater of the blue-green claystones.

We made it to the end!!!!!

That is one unhappy girl.

We headed back to the air conditioned car and then back to the campsite for the evening.  We had a fun day exploring.

When we got to the campsite we blew up some tubes and floated down the John Day.

We just floated through the picnic are and the campground, so it wasn't along float.  We sure had fun tubing down the river.

It was a great way to cool off after a day out in the heat!  The nice part was the river wasn't freezing and was comfortable to get into!

It sure was great to kick back and relax for a minute while we floated along.

The river temperature was so pleasant that mom was even willing to float it again!

After dinner we made some death by chocolate in the dutch oven to celebrate Grammy's birthday.  We did it the night before because we have to head back to Redmond tomorrow and wont be at the campsite in the evening.

We had fun singing and helping Grammy blow out her candles.

This definitely was not the best death by chocolate mom has made, she ended up burning it.  We are going to go with it is the thought that counts on this one.

Happy almost birthday Grammy!