All is well in our little corner of the world. It's too hot and dry here just as it is in pretty much the entire western part of the United States and Canada. We've had a few smoky mornings from the fires south and east of us but so far nothing is burning in the county where we live.
Summer Lake Wildlife Area
I'm still posting about our June trip to the other side of Oregon, an area that has not been so fortunate. When we visited, southeastern Oregon was dry with warm days and cool nights. This month it is hotter and drier and wildfires threaten some of the places we visited. One is burning near Summer Lake, where we visited the Wildlife Area.
American Avocet in Breeding Plumage
This wildlife area was established in 1944 by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife "to protect and improve waterfowl habitat and to provide a public hunting area." I wish they could alter that to add something like "public birdwatching area." I really do believe that is more important to many people these days than hunting.
Black-necked Stilt
We didn't really see a lot of game birds when we were there. Hunting is never allowed for shore birds and wading birds like the ones pictured here.
Avocets
Summer Lake is a real oasis for wildlife (and wildlife watchers) in the middle of this rather arid, desert-like part of our state. We can only hope that it will not be permanently harmed by these fires.
Summer Lake
Now on to another day's destination during this trip. (If I don't combine places, I will still be blogging about this trip when we're ready to start another one!)
At the visitor center at Fort Rock Historical Park we had seen "Derrick Cave" listed on "things to do in the Fort Rock area" so one day we set out to find it. As with everything on that side of Oregon, "this area" encompasses a lot more miles and acres than you might think. And rougher roads than you might expect. Wikipedia says "The road to Derrick Cave is very rough and there are no facilities at the site." Wikipedia does not lie! Bill drove in four-wheel drive for part of the way and, on our way out, in trying to make the drive a circle, we encountered the first dead-end road we found on this trip (but not the last). We backtracked often.
The cave is on Bureau of Land Management property and open to the public. However, we contented ourselves with the adventure of driving there and hiking in to view the cave once we finally arrived at the nearly unmarked location. They don't work real hard over there to make things easy for travelers. (Which is kind of nice in a way. We didn't see another soul on that day's journey and I'm not even sure we saw another car. )
There are eons of history connected to this hole in the ground! The tubular cave was created by lava flowing from a vent north of the cave. The exact age of the eruption is not determined but based on lava fields on the surface area is known to be between 6,845 years and 13,000 years ago.
Quite a bit more recently, but still quite a while ago, the cave was used by Fort Rock homesteaders as a summer recreation site — those pioneer families used ice formed in the cave. Then, during World War II, area residents planned to use the cave as an air-raid shelter, but it was never needed. In 1963, Derrick Cave was designated as a nuclear fallout shelter. Supplies of food and water for up to 1200 people were stored behind a locked steel door in the cave. Fortunately, the cave was never needed for this purpose. By 1970, all of the Civil Defense supplies had been stolen by vandals or removed by authorities.
Grateful for all the roads we take whether rough or smooth and all we learn from wherever they take us.
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