Diamond loop, backwards.

Our place in eastern Oregon is off the Diamond Loop loop. Today when I should have been writing, I decided to take the loop. I had specific reasons to take the drive.

First I had to go by the post office in Princeton and pick up a package sent to me for a prize for the conference I'm headed to tomorrow. So I drove off the loop long enough to pick the package, visit with our neighbor who works at the Post office, and then get back on the loop.

This is where I ended up backtracking. Because I wanted to hit Narrows for lunch, I went to the Peter French Round Barn visitor center/book store/museum, which was the opposite direction of my next stop. At the visitor center as always happens I bought a book. I always buy books when I'm there because they have the best collection of nonfiction historical books. I always find one that pertains to what I'm working on at the time I visit. They also have western clothing, knick knacks, dishes, cards, and snacks.

View from Malheur Refuge parking lot

Then I backtracked to drive the thirteen miles of gravel road to get to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. This has a wonderful visitor center with a gift shop, a building that houses taxidermy birds of every species on the refuge in a building, picnic areas, and a great few of the Malheur Lake with resident birds.

From there I drove twelve paved miles to Narrows and had a wonderful lunch at the cafe there. Also had a great conversation with the owner of the store who loves her kindle and was ready to look up my books when I left. ;) I brought home with me a mini cherry pie to eat tonight while I watch a movie.

Lava escarpment with Steens in background

I left Narrows, turned south and continued to the turnoff to Diamond. Before reaching Diamond, I turned back north and stopped to stand awestruck at the Diamond craters once again. It is such an odd site to see bubbled up lava and deep craters in the middle of sagebrush and bunch grass.  continuing on, I by-passed the Round Barn and returned home.

I love the diversity of the country in the one loop, the wildlife that abounds, and the way my mind conjures up how it must have been in the late 1800's when people first started homesteading the area.

One of the craters formed by volcanic activity