Norm looking over the Dutch Oven
Yet another gorgeous day to sleep in past sunrise, but not too late. Once again we are packed up and ready to head out around 10am, but our first stop is on foot. Leon and Norm lead us about 200 yards West of where we camped to a feature known as the Dutch Oven. A quarter mile across and over 70 feet to the bottom, this huge dent in the earth reminded me of a massive bathtub for some kind of ancient giant. Most likely formed from a meteorite impact thousand of years ago, it is now just a neat, big dent in the earth and a subtle reminder that we are not really in charge here.
Pete French Round Barn
We then tried to take a shortcut across the Hammond’s land toward the Steens Mountains, but found a locked gate barring us from a neighbor’s property. Backtracking through some beautiful high country, we made for pavement and another router further North. This too was blocked. A couple of gentleman on ATVs doing some surveying mentioned the route in was pretty rough and a bit off centered for our larger trucks anyway. Feeling a bit disappointed about not hitting our intended route, we instead chose to make the best of a bad situation and visit a local attraction on our way back to the main road.
The Round Barn is a little further north and a neat little side trip. There used to be more of these barns built by Pete French, a cattle baron of the late 1800s, and this is the last standing original barn. Meant to help train and break horses in the colder, rainier winter months, the barns have a unique design. This particular example is completely open to walk around and discover. Just be careful to not stand over any guano piles too long. After visiting the barn Mike and Ian said goodbye to the group and headed further East to get in some father and son time while doing some fishing.
MUD!!
The rest of us were tired of swatting mosquitoes and headed to the gift shop near the Round Barn. Leon knew the gentleman behind the counter at this out of the way attraction and after some conferring, they decided Dry Lake would be the closest and best place for a camp that night. Don’t let the name fool you, Dry Lake this time of year is anything but dry. Just take a look at the kids playing in the mud on the shore. They had an absolute blast piling mud, burying things and splashing in the water. Sabrina found that if she covered her arms in mud (much like her Mom was learning to do in massage and spa class around the same time), the mosquitoes left her alone! But then it started to peel and crack. Alas, she was a semi-clean kid before too long.
The camp that night was perfect, even with the mosquitoes. I’ll include some of the camp shots including the moon rise, sunset and campfire pictures. Tony really likes fire and had a good sized blaze going in no time. Eventually it settled down enough where we could sit around it and listened to a few more of Leon’s cowboy poetry, including a rather humorous story about an old man and his hearing aid. Around bed time the wind started picking up and made sleeping a bit more difficult, but once my mind blocked out the flapping tent sounds, life was good.
Day 5 Coming Soon!
