While preparing for the trip, as usual, Tom and I both spent a lot of time googling. One of the first sites that attracted us was the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument (National Park Service). Before filling up with gas (a frequent theme when I'm in the car), we stopped in the town of The Dalles along the river to have lunch (minestrone) at the Clock Tower Ales (formerly a Masonic hall and funeral parlor) before heading southward to the fossil territory.

This area is where the verdant forests of the river turn into the sage and grasslands typical of eastern Oregon. Lewis & Clark called The Dalles the "trading mart of the Northwest" and its location between the east and west makes it clear why it was an early crossroads.

Just past The Dalles is Biggs, which was our exit onto Oregon highway 97, one of the most wide-open and empty spaces I have ever been in. That idea was to be repeated in the following days, as we travelled across some of the last "frontier" space in North America.

The land was spectacularly beautiful along the "Journey Through Time Scenic Byway." I loved to roll down the window in our Jeep SUV and smell the sagebrush. From a distance, it seemed the hillsides were covered in burlap, but that was the texture of dried grass. It was always a surprise when another car would appear, and houses or ranches could be counted on one hand for the 120-mile drive from Biggs to the small town of Fossil. The only town of note we went through was Shinako, which is basically a ghost town.