Our magical mystery tour!

Friday Bend 03/06/2011

Today was exciting! Not only was the sun shining but we were off on our mystery tour with Tom and Betty! Our week of intrigue and anticipation was about to unfold! And what a fabulous day it was! - each destination unknown until we arrived -  180 mile round trip of fun and interest! What a great time!

Betty had our minds puzzled when we had to take 4 pastic ziplock bags with us - presumably one each! - what was this for!? Hmmmm? A clue but no solution to where we were going! We were loving the mystery!

We headed out of Bend on the same route we began our adventure, H-97 Tom and Betty finally telling us they were taking us back to Weed were we were snowed in at the start of our road trip  - just so we could see what it was really like under that huge blanket of snow!

We were suspicious! 

Surprise! The first stop was at the fabulous High Desert Museum which transported us back to the beginnings of this beautiful area ,as well as highlighting what it is today, with  excellent displays of the history of the geology of the area and the impressive Cascade Mountain Range;  the pioneers of the area and their triumphs and challenges, included an outdoor reconstruction of a logging / mill community;  and the indigenous Indians. We were also able to observe the wildlife of the high desert  in natural habitats - incredible to see a real bobcat, lynx, porcupine, otter, and the raptors! Definitely a place to visit when you explore Bend! 

Donald Kerr was the founder of  theHigh Desert Museum

The Bobcat sunning itself

The Lynx

Hello!

A Beaver
(taxidermy!)

Desert lizard

Great natural habitat
Can you see the lizard - great camouflage 

Desert Tortoise 

Munching on leaves

Great Horned Owl

Bald Eagle

Golden Eagle

Vultures

Rainbow Trout

Chipmunk

Otter

The Majestic Sentinels of the Cascade Mountains

Mt Hood is the highest mountain in Oregon at 11,239 feet, and Mt Jefferson the second highest  at 10,497 feet

Mt Shasta Crater

Mt St Helens, Washington State

Mt Rainier ( 14,411 feet), Washington State

The Three Sisters (all about 10,000 feet) and Broken Top (foreground), Oregon
The farthest of the Three Sisters is the oldest volcano of the three, and the nearest one the youngest - it erupted 2,000
years ago and is still active.

Crater Lake, Oregon

The historical recreation sets of the pioneering history were fabulous! 

The Indians

Th early settlers

The explorers

Goldmining

A bank in a frontier town 

The cowboys equipment

The Indians History was very enlightening!

Great artefacts, clothing, art work and photographs highlighting their history and culture in the area

Beautiful beadwork

Clothing, mats and toys

Arm warmers, bags and purses

Baby boards

Tipi

Feathered Headdress

Handmade clothing beautifully embroidered and beaded

The recreation of a logging mill and community.

  Beautiful bronze sculptures adorned the grounds.

We were bundled into the car again with Betty and Tom muttering about 4.30 and keeping to the time schedule - hmmmm? A clue? We had no clue!!! So off we drove, and we drove, and drove, finally turning off on the road to Reno! Alas no Weed! but Reno??!  So we drove and drove some more admiring the beautiful high desert with its plains of sage bush and Juniper trees - very nice but where were we really going? - there was nothing out here! Suddenly we caught a glimpse of a rock structure in the distance sitting huge and alone on the sage plain, and as we drew closer it looked like a fort, hence the name Fort Rock! Tom and Betty call it Oregon’s  Ayers Rock! Very impressive! and to add to the allure of this massive structure a dust storm blew up swirling a mysterious haze over this fascinating rock!  Nearly was remains of the old Fort Rock pioneer settlement with its original wooden buildings. It brought home to us how difficult life must have been for the pioneers of the high desert country!

The sage bush and Juniper trees are typical desert high country flora

The High Desert countryside - Christmas valley

Fort Rock rises out of the Christmas Valley plain

The little while dot at the right is an RV travelling around the base of the rock -
gives you some idea about the size of the rock formation!

Fort rock from different angles

One side missing! Why?
Read below!

At the base of Fort Rock

The eerie dust storm swirls around the rock!

Fort Rock Homestead Village Museum

So it was nearing 4.30 and we had to keep to our schedule (the word of the day!) we had lots of fun with the pronunciation! as we did with lots of other words - the Aussie way and the  American way!), so on with our mystery adventure! What on earth could be so important out here in this beautiful desolation - a sunset was my guess as we headed for an impressive looking butte up ahead - but sunset was hours away at 8-8.30!?????

Right on 4.30pm we pulled off the road into what looked like a bit of a broken down wooden cabin and some out- houses but amazingly there were about 10 cars parked there. Ah! We were going to go on a hike to watch the sunset! But no! We wandered over to the building with Betty and Tom, besides themselves with amusement at the puzzled,  bemused look on our faces! A sign “ The Cowboy Dinner Tree Steakhouse” greeted us as we got to the door and Betty and Tom announced we were going to have supper here - we looked even more bemused! We entered and were stunned to see a most unique, amazing rustic restaurant full of people enjoying the set evening fare! They had also driven miles into the high desert for this cuisine extraordinaire!  It was a fabulous venue and what a meal! Cowboy style! We thoroughly enjoyed our fun evening! And we finally discovered the purpose of the ziplock plastic bags! - doggie bags to take home what you couldn’t eat! Everyone at the restaurant did it!  The folk lore tradition attached to the famous “The Cowboy Dinner Tree Steakhouse” - the cowboys would ride in from their long,hard days out on the plains and the chuck wagon would be there under the tree near their quarters with their meal for the day. The tree is still there and the quarters have become this unique restaurant that people come for miles to experience. So glad we got to experience a restaurant as unique, unusual and novel as “The Cowboy Dinner Tree Steakhouse”!

A peek into the kitchen!

Tom and Betty - what a great mystery dinner date they planned!
Notice the interesting glasses the pink lemonade (real lemonade!) is in.

Yummy Bean Soup and homemade rolls and butter

Enjoying our cowboy meal!

Pete loves his steak!
All steaks served are between 26- 30oz and if
you order chicken don't get a shock when a whole roasted chicken appears on your plate!

The true Cowboy Cut steak being cooked on grill

The cowboy chef checks on the chickens

Cowboy Pete tries his hand at lassoing the cattle!
or his dinner! 

Well thrown Pete!

The cowboy and his steed!

Four very happy and satisfied people made the 90mile trip back to Bend, doggie bags in hand! And what a sight those beautiful mountains where!

Mt Bachelor

Mt Bachelor and Broken Top (peeking over the pine trees to the right)

Newberry Crater

Driving into beautiful Bend at the close of a truly magical day!

 Thanks Tom and Betty for the most interesting and fabulous day! - we certainly got a great insight into the life and times of this beautiful high desert country that beautiful Bend nestles in!  

What a wonderful way to culminate our American adventure!