Awesome Barren Rocky Canyon That This River Carved Into Ancient Lava Flows!
Large fish in this river but otherwise not many large animals in this barren canyon. Once you are in this canyon, there is no way out except to follow the river!
Roadside Rest Area, Salmon River Canyon. ID.
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(Photo = 111-1146r ...... ZMM Page = 260 ...... WayPt = 287 `|w|' ~1580ft)

Fertile Green Valley, just North of New Meadows ID.
After miles of low country heat and dry scrub & sage land, this wide lush green cool valley is a welcomed relief! Truly a new meadow! A roadside sign marking my Southward crossing of the 45th parallel (45 degrees North Latitude), occasioned my photo-stop to click off an eight shot panorama, one photo of which shows this near sunset scene with the town in the distance to the south. (Photo = 111-1155_IMG.JPG)

Sunset Overlooking the Next Town. Like the ZMM Narrator, I Feel the Loneliness and Letdown At the End of the Day.
No matter where I am, every evening on my ZMM Research Trip I stop to participate in the peaceful scenes at sunset, and as the Narrator emphasizes work on "peace of mind". At each sunset, I take the time to photograph the view. Someday I will place these photos in a special album, or should I add them into the real time sequence of my album "Flowers and Red Wing Blackbirds Along the ZMM Route"?
Several miles Northeast of Cambridge, ID.
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(Photo = 111-1157c ...... ZMM Page = 261 ...... WayPt = 292`|w|' ~3400ft)

My Only Photo of the ZMM Narrator's West Idaho Campground. This Was Taken Too Late To Show the Beef Cattle Herd That Frequents This Public Campground.

Brownlee Campground, ID. Twenty to thirty beef cows roam this well watered woods in this otherwise semi-desert dry baked area of Idaho. The cows woke me up with their mooing and bawing on all sides of my tent! I discovered that my two camera batteries both were night-chilled-dead and no chance for recharging them likely 50 miles in any direction. After several hours of warming by direct sun light, one battery, and not the other, regained just enough for just this ONE shot! But by now, of course, but the cows were gone.
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(Photo = 111-1161c ...... ZMM Page = 261 ...... WayPt = 296`|w|' 4382ft)

Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, 5 mi East of Baker OR.
A visit to this newly created Interpretive Center will prove to be an emotionally moving experience! For any sensitive person, who of course the ZMM Traveler actually is, (you) will not soon forget the recorded voice of the diorama scene of the mother weeping over the grave of her newly born child. The ZMM traveler just having his own experience with the very hot dry dusty sage country along Oregon Route 86, will be yanked / thrust to the even more gripping reality of what was the stiffer historical experience to have been on the Oregon Trail 150 years ago! The ZMM Route will take you right by the entrance to this Interpretive Center which will be seen on a high hill (mountain?) 1/2 mi north. Don't miss.(Photo = 111-1193_IMG.JPG)

Huge Male Buffalo at The Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
Be sure to stand by this huge Bison. It is definitely an EXPERIENCE! Several miles NE of Baker the ZMM Route following Oregon Rt 86 crosses the "ruts" created by multitudes ox pulled covered wagons on the historical Origin Trail. The Interpretive Center, high on a nearby mount, enables a dramatic view of vast semi-barren expanse through which those early pioneers persevered and endured. Don't miss it!
Five miles East of Baker, OR.
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(Photo = ...... ZMM Page = 111-1194c ...... WayPt = 303 `|w|' 3980ft)

The Old Wagon "Ruts" Can Almost Be Discerned Where They Are Crossed By Modern Highway, Oregon Route 86, ~5 mi East of Baker OR. The lined-up marker posts, barely visible in the sage to left of center in this photograph, mark the Historical Oregon Trail. You will learn at the neighboring Oregon Trail Center where to look for the wheel groves left by Ox Drawn Covered Wagons 150 years ago. The visitor at the Interpretive Center, high on the hill can look East-South-East, to see where the wagons came over the distant mountain ridge and creaked their way through the endless sea of dry dusty sage to pass on to sources of water and overnight camping, in the valley to the West. While on that hill, I got weak knees just thinking what it must have been like walking with the oxen and other wagons, along that endless dry dusty track through this dry desolate land. ... No towns. No roads. No sources of food or fodder. ... Day after day, month after month. ... No one to help, if disease befell or accident struck. ... The camp grounds were located just North of the present day Baker OR. (Photo = 112-1205_IMG.JPG)

Giant Size Covered Ox Wagon, 3-5 Miles East of Prairie City. OR). This twice-normal size “Wagon” is actually a “Tourist Information Cossack”. While Mon and Dad peruse the tourist literature in the opening under the cooling shade of the white cloth cover, kids can climb up to the wagon's driver seat and imagine the oxen pulling a creaking Conestoga, through the sage, towards the mountains seen in this photo's background. With a crack of the leather long whip ... WESTWARD HO !! (Photo = 112-1246_IMG.JPG)

Left to right: Museum/Tourist Info Building, Cool Garden, and 1880 Traditional Wooden Church, John Day OR. Here the traveler can step back in time 100 years! Look for the church spire. It is easily found on the north side of the main street, just west of town center. There is also a house full of Chinese Antiques in home of a former immigrant Chinese Doctor, also now a town Museum. It is located, on the North side of main highway several blocks further West from the location of the above mentioned Museum. Although I didn't have time to investigate, I understand these Chinese Antiques are fabulous! Listen more on NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4702857
These two museums illustrate an important fact about every small town along the ZMM route. Each town has a long and expansive history. And these town folk are intensely proud of their heritage and their roots. All you have to do is ask a question and just as author Pirsig describes in ZMM, you will experience the nicest rewards of traveling the ZMM Route! You should be sure to partake of this aspect of town life, otherwise you will miss much of the “real feel of the land” you are traveling through. Any person you meet: ….. stop ….. “make conversation” and "ask 'off hand' questions". Mention something you happened to notice. Try something like; "Beautiful valley. … "I notice lots of cattle" … "You have an interesting museum" … "People are friendly around here", etc. You will be glad you did! (Phot 112-1256_IMG.JPG)