Painted Hills - The story of the beautiful sunrise….

The wind seems to be in deep sleep - the same as almost everything else around here. The only activity we can perceive is ourselves, a few rabbits, and the sky. The time is now 5:12 and Nico and I have been awake all night, enjoying the company we have missed for the last 8 years. We are camping on the mountains, about 30 miles from the Painted Hills unit of the John Day Fossil Bed National Monument. The fire burned all night, and about an hour before day break, we climbed onto the powerful Explorer and headed towards the Painted Hills to watch the sunrise. The hills on the distance are becoming more and more defined as we drive - Day is announcing its arrival. I step on the gas pedal a bit harder, in order to beat the sun to our destination.

We arrive at the entrance to the park, and the sharp left turn points the car towards the North. The road is narrow, but traffic is non-existent. Not even on Fridays at 5:00PM. The speedometer reads 75 mph, and all of sudden, a dozen pretty good sized rabbits decide to cross in front of me….I slam on the brakes….From that point on, my speedometer never read more than about 30 mph…We continue on, and the rabbits kept on crossing in front of us. My video camera, mounted on its hand-held steady cam, sticks out of my window, recording the happenings. The sun must be about 20 minutes from showing up over the hills on the east. A few cirrus clouds absorb the warm morning light, and sight is beautiful. The road makes a 90 degree turn to the right, and the pavement breaks down into dirt. We have officially entered the Painted Hills Unit.

The road climbs through the rolling hills, and with every turn of road, a more beautiful sight appears. Finally the whole beauty of this place breaks in front of the dusty windshield. I stop the car, and shut off the engine. The silence is dense and impenetrable. The sky serves as a conductor for cosmic sound, and I am certain that I can hear the noise from outer space. I move the steady cam in a slow circle to capture the vastness of the sight. The view on the LCD monitor is amazing… I close my eyes and allow the energy from this powerful place to soak my spirit and make a deep mark in my memory..

Lost in Condon, Oregon

The gas needle has been dancing on the "lower part of the bottom-lower section of the reserve" gas tank for about 20 miles of hot Oregon road…It has been 178 miles since I last saw any sign of human life. I wonder if it ever existed around here…

We currently drive a 4x4 Ford Explorer and the drive is big and soft. Big time fuel sucker too! – We finally start seeing signs for the town of Condon, Oregon…This confirms our GPS information, and we can finally relax about the gas problem. We go by some old, now abandoned, production plants, and a chicken farm; not a single chicken in sight. I think this chicken farm has been gone for quite some time…it smells of old chicken shiet…

My first impression of Condon is that people left a while ago. We are cordially greeted into Main Street by signs announcing festivals that occurred years ago.There is actually no one around... We cruise the whole length of downtown - Condon, and people are nowhere to be seen - At this point I am starting to get concerned that there is no fuel in this town, like the last town we went by! If that's the case, then we are finished. We are out of fuel, running on the fumes that still remain in the fuel lines. After some more driving, and a turn away from Main street, we find the gas station – it looks deserted….if not deserted, at least definitely closed. I shut off the engine, and have a look at the office, inside: lights are off, and no one seems to be in there. I think, maybe this is self-serve? The turn-of-the-century style pump doesn't seem to have a credit card slot for self-serve. As I am thinking of how to get back to the now 278 miles away Portland, Oregon, a lady comes from the back, and without saying a word, fills up my tank…$60.00 less in my wallet. I say thank you and we leave Condon, Oregon - for good…

As we drive off the north end of Condon, towards more inviting lands near the Columbia Gorge, the road becomes dirt, and we enter an area of flat lands, with canyons and small distant hills. The landscape is mainly a desert, and it would be hard to guess when it last rained around here…Isolated thunder storms can be seen in the distant sky, creating an interesting background for the amazing landscape we are driving through. The road becomes rougher and rougher with every mile, and the explorer is starting to show that it is more of a soccer mom 4x4, than a real off-road vehicle; it slides and skids on downhill sections, and the ride is uncomfortable because of the soft suspension. I step on the gas, and the vehicle actually seems to handle the roughness a little better when you go faster.

The landscape is actually amazing: the land is flat as far as your eyes can see, but the terrain is high (about 2000 ft). There are canyons and deep river beds everywhere. It is at this point that we start realizing that we have been on this dirt road for about 20 miles and it seems to be getting too rough. The weeds are about 6ft tall, and it seems like no vehicle has gone by this road in years! However, by our map, HWY 207 is a main State Route. It should be a little better than this dirt road…We have a quick look at the GPS and see that we are getting farther and farther from where we should be…we are lost…that's the only thing we know. As we think of whether to go back, or see if we join the highway from this road, farther ahead, an amazing view comes into sight: There are huge wind mills everywhere! They are owned by PGE and they are used to create power, probably for the local communities? The sight is unbelievable…