Transitions: Good Bye Deserts, Hello Trees and Plate Tectonics

The Deschutes River

(This post covers adventures between May 1 and May7th)

This week, without our really planning it, has been the perfect transition between our last six months, and the upcoming six months. Since October of 2015 we've been in deserts. The Mohave, Sonoran, Chihuahuan, Basin and Range, and now, in Oregon, the High Desert. Starting next week we'll pass west over the Cascades, and back into wetter climates.  We'll stay in this climate through summer in Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, the Yukon,  Alaska at least through September.

As a fitting desert wrap up we visited the High Desert Museum. There were some great exhibits on desert weather and desert life. There was also a fun forest fire game where I did manage to put out the fire, but not before the loss of 30,000 acres of old growth trees. Guess I won't be looking for a job in the forest service any time soon.

As one would expect, during our desert days we haven't seen many trees. This week however we're getting a preview of forests to come. Surrounded by thousands of Ponderosa pines, we've been enjoying our stay at La Pine State Park in Central Oregon, just south of Bend.

One day we rode our bikes to the "Big Tree." It was a ponderosa pine with the largest circumference living in Oregon today. Until 2000 it was also the tallest pine, but it split in a storm and lost that claim. The interpretive sign did not reveal where the tallest pine might be hiding. Seems it would be a hard secret to keep.

Dave ponders the Big Tree

This wasn't however, our first "Big Tree". Just east of Mt. Rainier we followed a similar "Big Tree" sign. Sadly, that one was no longer living. Standing on the stump, it was easy to see that it had been a big tree, but really, it no longer qualified. Between then and now we've passed other "Big Tree" signs including one for a Douglas Fir in Western Washington. According to the web that tree was so big loggers refused to cut it down and instead built a curvey 30 mile road to it. We passed on that one but and we've also been to the Redwoods a number of times and seen lots and lots of other big trees. Leave trees alone for long enough and they will grow...provided they have enough water.

When not looking at trees, or causing them to virtually burn, we visited Lava Land National Monument. Aside from the fact that the gift shop does not sell lava lamps, it's pretty great. We drove up to the top of the cinder cone where we met a volunteer and talked about all the volcanoes, lava flows, cinder cones, etc all over the west coast. Reminding us again that while we might be leaving the desert, we'll be spend the next six months not only surrounded by trees but also in the Rim of Fire. Or to put it another way, we might be moving North to Alaska, but it's moving southeast to Midwestern United States. We'll be leaving the desert and re-entering tsunami land!