Journey Day 5

Tuffs of Turtle Cove - Tuff a term having to do with volcanic material and Turtle Cove a period 25 to 30 million years back. I am showing a detail but the spires are eerie and magical kind of like Disneyland drawings. The green color is a mineral and the composition is ash from volcanic output from the Cascade Mountains as they blew and spread debris. The ash is very soft and paleontologists are constantly unearthing more and more fossilized plants and bones.

Looked at so many perfect fossil specimens of plants in the museum - all so so so fascinating. The 4.5 mile hike around this whole green fairyland and into it was HOT but worth the sweat!

Highlights:
1. Waking early to first light high up on that mountain I described yesterday, so serene and so quiet.
2. The cows on the road driving down the good dirt road who are the best posers for a camera in the world - they stop dead still and stare.
3. Breakfast with internet and anchor in the tiny town Dayville where we camped overnight.
4. The hike around the Turtle Cove Tuffs and then long visit to the Museum visitor center.
5. Fossils of plants - why I love these so I simply do not know!

I am writing on the next day - off to the Painted Hills, the last of the three areas in this John Day Fossil Center of Central Oregon!