June 22 - Fossils galore

The sun was out this morning so we took advantage and spent the time playing and reading the newspaper. I have not heard NPR since leaving SLC so I am feeling very isolated from the world. Our first stop was at the interpretive center of the John Day Fossil beds. It is quite a new building and the displays were incredible. There were lots of fossils to look at and wonderful paintings depicting the local environments over the past 55 miilion years. Rob did another Ranger Badge. We went off to explore the rocks and fossils in both the Sheep Rock and Clarno units. As we traveled towards Clarno the roads got narrower and more windy. I lost count of the number of passed we had to pass over. It was like being in the valley of a thousand hills. We were so remote and gas was hard to find. When we finally found some we had to pay 3.30 per gallon! We are accustomed to 2.80 per gallon. The plant fossils in the Clarno unit were really great. By the time we were finished exploring it was 6pm. We still had to climb out of more hills and valleys before we made it out to a state highway. We turned north towards the Columbia River. The basalts all around us are impressive. I was relieved when we got to the river and found our campground. I am disappointed that the park is sandwiched between the interstate, railway line and river. It is really noisy