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Travel: Northwest and Central Oregon

By Robert Ellis
Robert Ellis Woodworking

For our trip to Oregon this fall, we made plans to see the Columbia River Gorge, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument (John Day is comprised of three separate units). We saw the Sheep Rock and Painted Hills units. From there we traveled to Smith Rock State Park (reminded me a lot of a small version of Zion National Park in Utah).

Since we were staying in Redmond, Oregon, and Crater Lake National Park is only about 120 miles away, we decided to visit this National Park...again. We had visited it before on a previous trip but couldn't see it for the dense fog over the entire lake. This year brought crystal blue skies. The last full day of the trip was Silver Falls State Park, which has several waterfalls as well, along with moss-covered, old-growth forests.

Our first stop was an overlook point near the beginning of the highway that runs along the Columbia River. I believe we saw nine on this day, including Silver Falls State Park. The total waterfalls visited this trip was around fourteen!

Note: We'll be posting photos from Robert's trip as he shares them, but you can bookmark this article to find them all as they're added.


See also, Robert's previous trip at Travel: Butch Cassidy Childhood Home

This story was posted on 2024-10-15 08:53:16
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Travel: Columbia River Overlook



2024-10-15 - Oregon - Photo by Robert Ellis, robertelliswoodworking.com.
This image (and first stop on the Ellis' recent trip to Oregon) is an overlook point near the beginning of the highway that runs along the Columbia River. This stretch of highway also features numerous waterfalls that the Gorge is well known for.

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Travel: Waterfall along the Columbia River Gorge Highway



2024-10-16 - Oregon - Photo by Robert Ellis, robertelliswoodworking.com.
Robert writes, "While waterfalls are beautiful, I have generally found capturing that beauty in camera, to be just ok; never to be an adequate reflection of what the eyes are truly seeing. Oftentimes, it seems for me anyways, my goal is to try to include as much of the surroundings in the photo as possible, in an attempt to balance the overpowering effect a waterfall can have, dominating a photograph.

Here, walking along the trail I'm coming up on the base of a tall waterfall (nearly all the waterfalls we saw that day were tall). The hint of fall colors, the group of five trees on the left of the photo, with one sweeping over the creek--and of course the flowing creek with the first glimpse of the falls--provided me with one of my favorite images of the trip."

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Waterfall Photography: Adding The Human Element



2024-10-18 - Oregon - Photo by Robert Ellis, robertelliswoodworking.com.
Robert writes, "This image was taken at one of the waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge. I came upon this group of tourists earlier on the trail as I was crossing a bridge over this stream. They were posing, playing really, having the best time sitting on a log that crossed the stream. Taking selfies, and at one point asked me to take their picture...with their cell phone.

Minutes later and by my wandering around and taking images, they managed to sneak past me and made it uphill to the waterfall before me. While the falls were beautiful (and have been photographed millions of times...no doubt) I decided to focus my attention to looking for a possible 'street photography'-styled image that this group might provide. They didn't dissapoint, I'm very pleased with the results!"

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Travel: High Desert, Central Oregon, 1 of 3



2024-10-21 - Oregon - Photo by Robert Ellis, robertelliswoodworking.com.
Robert writes, "Leaving the Columbia River Gorge area with its numerous Waterfalls, we head towards Central Oregon and the start of the high desert area. What a contrast to what we previously experienced. Our goal for today's drive would be John Day Fossil Beds National Monument...stopping of course to take images of this wind farm, an old building and a barn along the way!"

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Travel: High Desert, Central Oregon, 2 of 3



2024-10-22 - Central Oregon - Photo by Robert Ellis, robertelliswoodworking.com.
Photo 2 of 3 from this day of the Ellis' trip through the high desert area of Central Oregon, on the way from the Columbia River Gorge to John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Robert writes, "What a contrast to what we previously experienced."

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Travel: High Desert, Central Oregon, 3 of 3



2024-10-23 - Central Oregon - Photo by Robert Ellis, robertelliswoodworking.com.
Photo 3 of 3 from this day of Robert's trip through the high desert area of Central Oregon, on the way from the Columbia River Gorge to John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

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Travel: Sheep Rock at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument



2024-10-24 - North-Central Oregon - Photo by Robert Ellis, robertelliswoodworking.com.
Robert writes, "One Park, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, with three units: Clarno, Sheep Rock and Painted Hills. According to oregon.gov, the Monument is located in North-Central Oregon. Since these units are spread out and you have to drive to each one separately, and we had some time constraints, we eliminated the Clarno Unit.

Our first unit was Sheep Rock, with plans to hike one of the trails. It was an easy, colorful hike with very small elevation gain (the kind we like). Right around the bend of this photo is the grand finale of the trail...photo 2."

More photos from this trip coming this week. Click 'Read more' to see all photos posted so far.

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Travel: Sheep Rock at John Day Fossil Beds, 2 of 3



2024-10-25 - Central Oregon - Photo by Robert Ellis, robertelliswoodworking.com.
Robert writes, "This is the end of the trail that was mentioned in the first photo of this Monument. While I was in awe of these colors, it turns out this unit was a prelude for something even more spectacular...next series-Painted Hills Unit!"

Robert recommends this link if you'd like to learn more about the John Day Fossil Beds: www.nps.gov/joda.

More photos from this trip coming this week. Click 'Read more' to see all photos posted so far.

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Travel: Sheep Rock, 3 of 3



2024-10-29 - John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Oregon - Photo by Robert Ellis, robertelliswoodworking.com.
Robert writes, "Spectacular view of Sheep Rock from a short hike that starts at the historic Cant Ranch House (the house was closed on the day of our visit)."

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Travel: Painted Hills at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument



2024-11-01 - Central Oregon - Photo by Robert Ellis, robertelliswoodworking.com.
Robert writes, "One Park, three units: Clarno, Sheep Rock and Painted Hills.

We finally arrived at the Painted Hills Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The overcast skies, which I was thankful for, brought out the vibrant colors of the hills. In this scene I was going more for an abstract by eliminating the sky altogether... it seemed to work, one of my favorites of the Oregon trip."

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Travel: Another view of the Painted Hills



2024-11-01 - John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Oregon - Photo by Robert Ellis, robertelliswoodworking.com.
Robert writes, "Another view of the Painted Hills Unit, this time with the sky included. You can just make out the road that's heading into the park (left side of image). Above that road, on the same left side of the picture is a faint line (trail) that takes you to the top for an overlook of the Park.

From research and videos watched, it was planned to do the trail...but after looking at it and the elevation gain, we opted to be content with the less-elevated trail we were on since it was providing beautiful scenery from every direction!"

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Travel: Smith Rock State Park



2024-11-21 - Near Bend, Oregon - Photo by Robert Ellis, robertelliswoodworking.com.
Robert writes, "This park is considered a hidden gem in Oregon. It offers world class mountain climbing with over a thousand climbs of bolted routes. On the day of our visit there were numerous climbers on the cliff faces. When I zoom in on this photo, I actually can make out a climber (from left side of photo, 3rd jagged peak, about a 1/3 of the way down, in the bright space between shadows).

It's a beautiful park, has sorta a Zion National Park feel to it, but on a much smaller scale. We enjoyed it!"

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