South on 395

Leaving John Day, OR, we got on US 395 which we intend to follow for hundreds of miles.  We won't even need the GPS!  After our normal ~100 miles, we stopped in a BLM campground on Chickahominy Reservoir.

It seems we moved from the land of fossils to the land of obsidian.  As I'm sure you know, obsidian was used by the Native Americans for arrowheads and spear points.   Ron first noticed it in the campground (in the gravel fill, of all places.)  On the map we noticed a Glass Butte nearby so we went to investigate.  Although we didn't get to the actual butte, the obsidian was all over the ground.

You might mistake it for an ordinary rock.

But if a piece is chipped off, the black volcanic glass just shines.

I picked up a couple for the garden at home and Ron intends to try his hand at knapping (the process of shaping stone tools or weapons through repeated forceful blows to break or chip away the stone.)

After our stay at the reservoir, we continued south past some some curious pronghorn.

We thought we were really in the desert when we passed these sand dunes.

Lake Abert is billed as the largest salt lake in Oregon.  I don't know how many salt lakes there are in Oregon, but this one covers 63 square miles when full.  Unfortunately, the water level is down and looks like it has been for awhile.

The road runs between the lake and Abert Rim, a 30-mile long, 2500-foot high fault escarpment.

We picked a sno-park outside of Lakeview, OR, for our home for a few days.  While there, I think I found the hole in the ozone.