The rugged Painted Hills area in the desert of Oregon is perhaps my favorite palce in this State of all States.  Jackrabbits were abundant, as were hawks and unidentified larger birds of prey.  Although Canadian geese are considered pests (a reflection on their "geeseness" not their citizenship), they are majestic birds, and the little fuzzy geeselings are cute.   I saw one large king snake, and a ranger told me a herd of Gazelle was nearby, but by th e time I got there, they had disappeared into the dusk.

The starscape was amazing!  The only town anywhere near the Painted hills is Mitchell, and its 200 inhabitants don't produce much noise pollution--the night sky in the desert is unbelievably clear!  I didn't bring a tent...sleeping under the stars is the way to go.

There were many little ghost towns and abandoned buildings dating back to the homesteads of the the 1800's. 

Condon is a little town of less than 1,000 people.  It has a great ice-cream shop (in the flower store) has two other claims to fame.  First, it is one of three cities in the world that has Powells Books (Portland, Chicago, Condon)!  Second, there is no other town of this size that has produced two Nobel laureates!  Notice that Ice-Cream and Powells are both higher on my list than Nobel laureates.  Condon really is a nice sleepy town, with a nice little old fashioned hotel that isn't expensive (off season anyway).  There is tons of camping along the John Day river, and the highway out of town eventually goes to the Painted Hills.

 Also, Mike's Ice-Cream in Hood River is homemade!  It is even better than the ice-cream in the flower shop in Condon, which is damn good!