Page 116 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Pacific Northwest

114  P A CIFIC NOR THWEST REGION B Y REGION

(756 sq km) of the Blitzen Valley poplar­shaded ranch town
floor. More than 320 species where the number of guests
of birds and 58 species staying at the hotel determines
of mammals inhabit the whether the town’s population
wet lands, meadows, and exceeds the single digits.
uplands, ensuring prime wildlife
viewing for visitors. Sandhill } Diamond Loop National Back
cranes, tundra swans, snowy Country Byway
white egrets, white­faced ibis, n 28910 Hwy 20 W, Hines.
pronghorn antelope, mule deer, Tel (541) 573­4400.
and redband trout are among
the most numerous of the
refuge’s denizens.
Spring and fall are the best
times to view birds, which alight
in the refuge on their annual
The seemingly endless desert landscape of migrations up and down the
the Jordan Valley Pacific Flyway, a major north–
south route for migrating North
l Jordan Valley American waterfowl. A small
museum houses specimens
Road map 1 C4. * 239.
∑ cityofjordanvalley.com of birds commonly seen in the
refuge. Starting at the center, Resting mule deer in the Malheur National
This scruffy desert ranching the Central Patrol Road traverses Wildlife Refuge
settlement is one of only a few the 40­mile (64­km) length of
towns in sparsely populated the refuge and provides access x John Day Fossil
Malheur County, where to the prime viewing spots.
just 28,000 people inhabit The P Ranch, at the south end, Beds National
10,000 sq miles (25,900 sq km). is the historic spread of Peter Monument
Jordan Valley makes two claims French, who settled the Blitzen
to fame. A legacy of the Basque Valley in the 1880s. Road map 1 B3. n Hwy 19, 40 miles
sheepherders who settled (64 km) west of John Day, (541)
987­2333. Open dawn–dusk daily;
the town in 1890 is the ball Environs Thomas Condon Paleontology Center
court, built in 1915, for playing From the refuge, the 69­mile (Sheep Rock unit): Open 9am–5pm
pelota, a game that resembles (111­km) Diamond Loop daily. Closed major hols between
American handball. A wind­ National Back Country Byway Thanksgiving & Presidents’ Day.
swept, sagebrush­filled heads into sage­covered hills ∑ nps.gov
cemetery 17 miles (27 km) and red rimrock canyons. Along
south of town on Highway 95 the route are Diamond Craters, Prehistoric fossil beds litter the
is the final resting place of Jean a volcanic landscape formed John Day Fossil Beds National
Baptiste Charbonneau, son of between 17,000 and 25,000 Monument, where sedimentary
the Indian guide Sacagawea years ago; the Round Barn, rocks preserve the plants and
(see p41). Born in 1805, Jean was a distinctive 19th­century animals that flourished in jungles
taken across the country with structure with a round stone and savannas for 40 million years,
the Lewis and Clark party, which corral surrounded by a circular between the extinction of the
his mother helped guide. Years paddock; and Diamond, a small, dinosaurs and the beginning of
later, he died of a chill at a
stagecoach stop near Jordan
Valley in 1866.
z Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge
Road map 1 C4. Tel (541) 493­2612.
Refuge and museum: Open dawn–
dusk daily. Closed major hols. Visitors’
center: Open mid­Mar–mid­Oct:
8am–4pm daily; mid­Oct–mid­Mar:
8am–4pm Mon–Thu. Closed major
hols. 7 ∑ fws.gov/malheur
One of the nation’s largest
wildlife refuges, Malheur
spreads across 292 sq miles Formations at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument’s Sheep Rock unit
For hotels and restaurants see pp286–8 and pp296–8

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