Traveling to Oregon, from Craters of the Moon to the Willamette Valley

Photos of our journey to Oregon, our arrival in Oregon, and things we saw.

A fissure in the lava at Craters of the Moon National Monument.
Craters of the Moon landscape.
Lava along the trail to the lava tube caves at Craters of the Moon.
Craters of the Moon; landscape with cinder cone.
Craters of the Moon landscape with lava and cinder cone.
A close examination of the Hot Rock Penstemon (Penstemon deustus) shows stripes (bee lines) of red color in the white blossoms at Craters of the Moon.
Hot Rock Penstemon or Scabland Penstemon (Penstemon deustus) grows in volcanic soils, basalt cliffs, and right in the lava at Craters of the Moon.
There are so many flowers that look like this, but I am not certain of what this is. it has only five petals per flower, but otherwise resembles Drummond’s Anemone (Anemone drummondii). The leaves and petals make it look more like Canadian Anemone (Anemone canadensis), but it is probably not that, either. Could it possibly be a relative of the Northern anemone (Anemone parviflora)? I really think it must be some sort of cinquefoil (Potentilla), but it has white petals rather than yellow, so I do not recognize what type it could be (would guess Potentilla fruticosa). I really do not know. We just saw a few plants of this species on our walk to the lava tube caves at Craters of the Moon. Insects evidently enjoy its blossoms.
Another close-up photograph of some wildflowers I could not identify with certainty, although I am confident this is some sort of cinquefoil rather than an anemone or buttercup. It might be Bush Cinquefoil (also known as “McKay’s White”). We noticed this near the lava tube caves at Craters of the Moon.
This is some type of groundsel (four different species of groundsel thrive at Craters of the Moon) growing along the trail to the lava tube caves.
This was the only specimen of Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja) we found growing at Craters of the Moon during our short visit; there are six species in the park, and we would have seen more if we had gone to other places.
Several bushes of antelope bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata) were growing along the trail between the parking lot and the lava tube caves.
Jeri gives a smile to me as we walk across the lava fields. There is a hard surface trail suitable even for mobility assistance devices to help visitors get safely out into the lava fields at Craters of the Moon National Monument.
We visited the Craters of the Moon on June 9th of 2021; Jeri and I visited earlier in May of 2019, and I had come here with our sons back in late June of 2005. It is nice to return to a place and see how it changes or how the different seasons alter the appearance.
As we traveled the 2,320 miles (3,734 kilometers) route from Springfield, Illinois to Eugene, Oregon, I enjoyed getting out of the car every two or three hours to enjoy short walks at scenic or historic sites. I think you can sense how much I enjoyed hiking around the lava fields at Craters of the Moon as you see my smiling expression in this portrait photograph.
Although this was my third visit to Craters of the Moon, it was our first time to explore the lava tube caves. Here is Jeri in the Indian Cave trying to keep her balance on the uneven floor.
Growing up in adolescence in Indiana and Missouri, I spent many hours—and even days or weekends—in limestone caves, but the lava tube caves of the west are quite different. However, even these western caves have bats, and much cooler temperatures in the darkness on hot sunny days. You can observe that I am enjoying my time in the cave in this photograph.
Jeri and I are posing in the Indian Cave at Craters of the Moon National Monument.
Indian Cave has a skylight where there has been a collapse of the ceiling. In karst (porous limestone) landscapes, this would be a sinkhole.
Here is another view of the skylight in Indian Cave at Craters of the Moon National Monument. The photograph was taken from a different direction with a shorter shutter speed and lower ISO setting, so the shadows are darker.
Caves that were once tubes for molten rock have a different shape than most caves carved by water dissolving sedimentary rocks. Lava caves are much more like round tunnels or tubes.
On a hot sunny day (the June 2021 day when we visited was sunny and warm, but not really hot), the caves bring welcome relief. Here is Jeri enjoying the shade of the cave.
Jeri is ascending the steps out of the cave. We only had time to visit one of the several lava tube caves.
We arrived in Boise in time to see the Boise Art Museum from 4:15 until it closed at 5:00, and 45 minutes was all the time we really needed. There were about a dozen works I found extremely engaging and interesting, but no photography was allowed, so I have no photos to share. I thought this poster outside the museum featured a woman who bears some slight resemblance to Jeri; what do you think? Some of my favorite work in the museum was created by Julie Mehretu, Sarah Sze, and Nicola López. A Huichol artist had created a Beaded Venado (Deer) that was the best example of such Wixarika Beaded Deer folk art I had ever seen, displayed in the museum, but you can find many similar (but not as inspiring) works for sale online if you search.
At 5:00, after the art museum closed, we walked behind the museum to the Julia Davis Park and enjoyed the rose garden there. In this photograph you can see a water fountain where the water was suspiciously blue.
Here we have Jeri standing in the lovely rose garden in Boise’s Julia Davis Park rose garden, between the art museum and the zoo, near the Snake River.
The bright afternoon sun gave us ideal conditions for admiring the colors of the thousands of roses in the Julia Davis Park rose garden.
Boise, Spokane, Portland, and some other cities in the Pacific Northwest have tremendous rose gardens. If you appreciate roses, you will enjoy a visit to the rose gardens in this region of the country.
As I live in Springfield, Illinois (hometown of Abraham Lincoln, who resided here most of the time from the mid-1830s until he left for Washington, DC early in 1861), I have habits of reading biographies of Lincoln and collecting photographs of statues and art work that represents him. Boise has a fine statue of the great man by Irene Deely in Julia Davis Park, which was dedicated in 2010. I suppose the image portrays him in 1861 or 1862, when he was President of the USA.
From Boise, it is not far, and it does not take long, to drive to Ontario, Oregon. Driving between Illinois and Oregon there are three basic routes one can take to get into Oregon (with many variations on the basic routes). The southern route comes north out of Nevada through Winnemucca and the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge (free camping at the Virgin Valley there), and the first town you see in Oregon is Lakeview. The northern routes come down from Washington through Spokane and into Hermiston, Oregon. The direct routes through Idaho enter by crossing the Snake River and coming into Ontario from Boise, Idaho.
When traveling in the USA or Canada, we mainly get our meals from grocery stores, maybe eating restaurant food for one meal every two or three days. The Albertson’s (grocery store) deli in Ontario provided me with potato salad, corn and jalapeño salad, and a cheese tortellini salad, making a satisfying dinner for our first evening in Oregon.
Normally on the fastest route between Oregon and Illinois we need only three nights (one in Nebraska, one in Wyoming, and one in Idaho) to go 2,050 miles, mainly on Interstate Freeways. That can be boring. This time we took six days and five nights to drive a more scenic route of 2,320 miles, mainly on US-20 and US-26, with a couple nights in Nebraska, one night in Wyoming, one in Idaho, and a final night near Vale, Oregon, at the Bully Creek Reservoir Campground. The photo above shows a road in the Bully Creek campground.
The landscapes in eastern Oregon can be barren and stark, but where there is irrigation or a river or creek, green fields and meadows with trees can provide a lush contrast. Here is Jeri by the Bully Creek Reservoir, on a very windy evening. We had some rain showers in the campground that night.
The Bully Creek Reservoir was more impressive than I had expected. The evening clouds and light enhanced the exciting atmosphere, but the strong gales of wind did the most to make this a memorable evening, until the sunset color began.
Jeri and I walked from the campground out on a peninsula in Bully Creek Reservoir, and as we were walking back to the campground, the sun sank below the clouds and we were treated to a spectacular sunset.
The sunset over Bully Creek Reservoir impressed us with its beauty. At the same time, there was an evening rainbow in the east, not as spectacular as the sunset, but lovely nevertheless.
It was getting dark, so I used a flash to photograph Jeri, and you can see how deep and red the sunset was behind her.
We staked down the tent and tied down the rain fly securely in the strong winds. The gale blew all night, with occasional rain showers, but we had some still air for an hour or two in the morning.
The campground has green grass and trees, thanks to irrigation. The water was contaminated with high concentrations of arsenic, so it was not fit for drinking (or even for brushing our teeth), but it was okay for showers.
Must be sagebrush buttercup (Ranunculus glaberrimus var. glaberrimus). But look at that relatively massive stigma towering on its style over the anthers; that is unusual, isn’t it? Anyway, it doesn’t appear to be a creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens), an invasive weed in the Northwest.
Field bindweed (sometimes called “Morning Glory” although it is Convolvulus arvensis and not one of the plants from Mexico and Central America in the genus Ipormoea with pretty blue flowers that look so lovely in gardens) is a terrible, noxious weed with roots that can go 30 feet deep and seeds that can persist sixty years in soil. Despite its well-deserved bad reputation, field bindweed has lovely flowers. I do not know whether its seeds can yield the psychoactive substance LSA as Ipormoea plants can.
US Highway 20 winds its way through hills, following the course of the Malheur River, which we admired as we drove from Vale to Juntura. Although the hillsides were steep, I only noticed impressive cliffs in one short section along the river.
Driving through Malheur County on US-20, the contrast between the lush banks of the Malheur River and the dry sagebrush desert covering the hills provides motorists with pleasing scenery.
In Eastern Oregon the US-20 highway winds around at the base of big hills like this one.
In my opinion, US-20 between Vale and Juntura (or even between Vale and Buchanan) would rank high among the scenic routes for driving in the United States. It cannot compare to the Going-to-the-Sun Highway in Glacier National Park or the Paradise Road / Stevens Canyon Road in Ranier National Park, but it has a stark beauty that puts it in a category with such scenic routes as State Route 2 through the Nebraska’s Sand Hills, US 385 through the Black Hills of South Dakota, or Missouri State Route 19 through the Ozarks.
This is a view of the Malheur River near the Juntura Hot Springs, a few miles east of Juntura, Oregon.
If you get off Highway US-20 on the gravel road about 400 meters east of the bridge over the Malheur (a few miles east of Juntura, Oregon) you can drive down this gravel and dirt road on Horseshoe Bend to the place where you can ford a branch of the river to get to the island where Juntura hot spring sits, waiting for you to come and soak in its warm waters. We walked, unsure of the road’s condition, but I think our Toyota Sienna has gone over worse roads, and could have made the journey most of the way.
On June 10, 2021 we found the Malheur to be just low enough for a safe fording, but the water came up to the top of my legs, and the current was pretty strong. The river bottom was covered with large and unstable rocks, so footholds were tricky, and I expected to fall into the water (thus, I did not bring my camera or phone with me). As Jeri would not dare to cross the river, I only spent about one minute in the main hot spring pool before returning, but I would love to come back to Juntura Hot Spring when the river is a little lower and when I have water shoes to wear.
I suppose this to be alfalfa (Medicago sativa) although it has a darker color than alfalfa usually has. This is a common crop in eastern Oregon, so this plant seems to have escaped into the wild, and was growing along the road to Juntura Hot Springs on Horseshoe Bend.
We noticed this Garden Bird’s-Foot-Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) along the gravel road on Horseshoe Bend near Juntura Hot Spring. This is an European plant that was introduced to North America, where is provides good forage for cattle and nectar for insects.
Nice tiny pink flower clusters on this plant. I suppose with flowers like these, it must be in the Buckwheat family, but I do not recognize it, nor can I identify it with the help of the internet. It was growing near the Malheur River (but not in the river, so it is not dock).
This is the dirt road on Horseshoe Bend along the Malheur in Eastern Oregon, near Juntura. The ruts were pretty deep around here, and I would not have driven my vehicle on this section of the road, but there were good places to pull over and park (camping spots), so it would be possible to avoid going over this portion of the road.
Some fuzzy gray moss and lichen on a stone on Horseshoe Bend along the Malheur River.
This massive dandelion we noticed on Horseshoe Bend is a Tragopogon (a salsify), and like all of these (there are many species), it is not native to North America. One could dig up the root and eat it, if one was so inclined. The salsify (Tragopogon genus) have edible roots.
I generally hate thistles, but I must admit that they are pretty.
In Eastern Oregon this plant, which probably belongs to some species in the genus Trachyspermum, seems fairly common. I could be wrong, and it might be Cow Parsnip (Herecleum lanatum).
Another common genus of plants one sees flowering in Eastern Oregon is Penstemon. This is a North American genus usually found in the far north or at high altitude in North America. It is a large genus with about 250 species, and it is native to North America. The Penstemon plants are also known as beardtongues.
I like this sort of view, where the hills are dry and almost barren, but the valley floor is lush and green because a river or stream runs through it, and fields are irrigated. The contrast between the shade-giving trees and green well-watered grass or crops and the surrounding dry land just seems charming to me. This may be because I spent my early years in Orange County (California) when there still was significant agriculture and the farms were relatively green whereas the areas that were not irrigated tended to be dry and semi-desert.
Just a typical gravel road in Eastern Oregon. This one is near Vale and the Bully Creek Reservoir.
We stopped at the Apple Peddler restaurant in Burns to purchase a slice of apple pie and an entire blackberry pie, which we brought to Eugene to share with our sons. The garden between the restaurant building and the parking lot had some lovely roses growing, and I took a photograph of this one.
A twisted old tree looks a little like a horse’s head, maybe? The National Park Service sign along the nature trail calls this the “Lava Ness Monster tree”, comparing the shape to the neck and head of the Loch Ness Monster. Trees such as this one, growing in the lava fields, tend to only get one root down through the lava to reach water and nutrients, and so the trees grow with a twisted spiral shape, allowing branches in all directions to receive water and nutrients from the single taproot.
This cute resident of the Newberry Volcanic Park is a Yellow-Pine Chipmunk.
From Burns, we drove to Bend, and then headed south to the Newberry Volcanic Park, which is only a few miles south of Bend. We strolled along two of the nature trails and enjoyed the volcanic landscape, comparing it to what we had seen at Craters of the Moon in Idaho the previous day.
While in Newberry Volcanic Park, one can see several of the volcanic mountains of the Oregon Cascade range. In this image, from left to right, one can admire the snow-covered top of the South Sister, and then Broken Top Mountain. Clicking for the larger image will show a wider shot, and the Middle and North Sister are also visible. The lone tree in the foreground adds some character to the scene.
This is an image of one lone tree in the lava fields of Newberry Volcanic Park, with Mount Bachelor rising behind it. .
Newberry Volcanic Park has an abundance of this beardstongue; the species being Davidson’s Penstemon or Davidson’s beardstongue (Penstemon davidsonii).
The Davidson’s Penstemon requires well-drained soils and lots of sun and heat, so I guess lava beds in Newberry Volcanic Park make an exceptionally good home for the plant.
The bright purple and lavender pink colors of the Davidson’s Penstemon are set well against the dark color of the eroding lava.
Our second nature walk in Newberry Volcanic Park was along the rim of Lava Butte. Here is Jeri ascending the top of the rim, with the forests and volcanic hills of the country south of Bend, Oregon behind her.
Here is Mount Jefferson (10,495 feet, 3199 meters) behind Black Butte, as seen from Lava Butte in Newberry Volcanic Park.
Mount Bachelor (9068 feet, 2764 meters) seen from Lava Butte. In June 2021, when we took these photographs the snow pack in the Cascade Mountains was far diminished below normal, as global warming trends and a drought were replacing snow with rain, leading to problems for agriculture.
Jeri pauses on the nature trail around the rim of Lava Butte at Newberry Volcanic Park.
Looking southwest on the Lava Butte rim nature trail, the lava and cinder fields below stretch out to meet the forest, which stretches out to the Cascades.
Snags in picturesque shapes on Lava Butte Rim Trail at Newberry Volcanic Park.
Saturday the 12th of June the graduating students from University of Oregon marched in a celebration parade in Eugene, Oregon. Our son seemed to be looking at me as I took this photograph.
University of Oregon Graduation in 2021, in Eugene, Oregon
I was positioned on the far side of the road from where our son was in the parade, so all you can see of him among the other Ducks graduating in this photograph are his profile down to his nose. His mouth, chin, ear, and the back of his head are obscured by the mortar board hat and someone’s hand held up and pointing to the heavens.
Arthur is not wearing his mortar board hat in this photograph of the parade of graduates at the University of Oregon Graduation in 2021, in Eugene, Oregon
University of Oregon Graduation; one student is on the phone; another wears a lei. When I was a college student in California in the 1980s, I think the Hawaiian students wore leis, so perhaps that student is from Hawaii. Arthur is in the back, looking down.
University of Oregon Graduation in 2021, in Eugene, Oregon. Most of the students were fully vaccinated (for COVID-19), and over 67% of Oregon’s population aged 18 and over had received at least one vaccination shot, so the mask wearing requirement, and the social distancing rules, were not strictly enforced.
University of Oregon Graduation in 2021; after the parade, students waited in two long lines as the names of students were read out over a loudspeaker, one by one, as about 2,500 students received congratulations on their graduations.
Arthur, now wearing his mask, peers ahead to see the long line stretched out in front of him, and the tent at the front of the line where students entered to receive a fake diploma thing; the real diplomas were mailed out to student’s homes.
The COVID-19 Pandemic hit in Arthur’s third year, but he was studying abroad in Taiwan, where the spread of the virus was well-controlled, and there was (in 2020) no shut-down. However, when he returned to classes in Oregon as a senior in the fall of 2020, all his courses were online, and they continued to be entirely online throughout his senior year. Here he is with other 2021 graduates of the University of Oregon, mostly wearing masks.
The wait for students to have their names called out and receive a fake diploma thing lasted over two hours. Standing for such a long time, we observed at least one student collapse. If the goal of having students march in a parade and stand in line was to promote social distancing, it seemed to me this objective was not achieved; having students seated in chairs spaced far apart might have been more effective.
Arthur’s tassel is green and yellow, the colors of the University of Oregon. Had he worn one colored for his academic discipline, it would have been russet, or golden yellow. Black tassels were not common in the crowd of graduates, as most students seemed to prefer disciplinary or school colors.
As Arthur nears the front of the line, the long wait was nearing its end. By the time Arthur’s name was called out, I suspect nearly 2,000 students had gone before him, and about 500 remained.
While waiting around after the parade of graduates, I spent some time in the University of Oregon Art Museum, but came out again to wait for Arthur’s name to be called. During the 40 minutes or so while I waited for that, I had not much to do except photograph Arthur and his schoolmates.
Arthur prepares to go forward at the University of Oregon Graduation in 2021, in Eugene, Oregon
University of Oregon graduates in 2021 wait in line after the graduation parade. This process took up much of the afternoon.
Arthur finally reached the front of the line and went into the tent to have his name announced.
Those watching the graduation online were able to see Arthur receive his fake diploma thing inside the tent. Those of watching from the side of the tent (and those still in the line of graduates) could discern nothing of what happened to students who went inside the tent.
After hours of waiting in the crowded line, students graduating from the University of Oregon went one by one into the tent to receive their diploma thing, and then emerged alone from the other side of the tent. A parallel process to college, where students spend four years, more-or-less, together as a community, and then emerge alone into the next stage of their lives.
Puddles the duck, the mascot of the University of Oregon, tries to contain the restless throngs of graduates about to march through campus to wait in line for hours at a tent.
The University of Oregon’s mascot, Puddles the Duck looks out over the mob of graduating students from his perch on his official golf cart.
As a mascot, Puddles the Duck is highly skilled in whipping up enthusiasm and energy in crowds. Here Puddles points forward in a frantic gesture of hope and joy, trying to inject some enthusiasm into about 2,500 students who know they are about to march across the University of Oregon campus to reach a destination where they will wait around for possibly hours. This is a daunting task.
Lydia from the Traverse City region of Michigan, temporarily pulling her mask down, participates in the march across the University of Oregon campus.
A river of emerald mortar board caps flows down 13th Street in Eugene, Oregon, the caps resting on the heads of graduating students.
The graduation event at the University of Oregon (in Eugene) on June 12, 2021
Puddles the Duck poses with some of his devotees during the ritual of college graduation in Eugene, Oregon
Puddles the Duck strikes a pose reminiscent of newsreel footage of General MacArthur stepping onto the beach at Leyte Island back in October of 1944 as he departs the scene at the University of Oregon graduation in 2021.
Puddles the Duck provided the most entertaining diversions at the graduation event, but the scale of the tedium as the masses of students waited to have their names called was more than one poor duck could handle, and so he eventually departed.
This work by Hank Willis Thomas (American, born in 1976) is called “An All Colored Cast”. As you look at it in the gallery, it appears to be just a grid of colored squares, although you can detect at certain angles that something, perhaps portraits of persons, are printed upon on some of the squares, but these appear just as shining shapes on a few squares. However, if you use a flash photo to get a picture of the squares, you will see on the image (which I show here) the portraits of various American popular culture figures from the entertainment and media worlds. You can also see the portraits by looking at the work through certain filters or lenses (a phone lens might work). The portraits are of persons with African, Latin American, or Asian heritage, thus the name of the work.
While waiting for my son to have his name called out during the graduation, I returned to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, which I had last visited in September of 2017. The Schnitzer family supplied a substantial percentage of the collections at the art museums for the University of Oregon and Washington State University; the Boise Art Museum collection also seems to display a high proportion of donations from Jordan Schnitzer. The Symphony Hall in Portland, Oregon is named for Jordan’s mother, Arlene. Anyway, the museum in Eugene is worth visiting, especially if you share my interest in Asian Art. There was a good collection of works by Pierre Daura (1896-1976) on display when I visited this time. This work, “Geometric” was created by Daura in the early 1960s.
There were several landscapes by Pierre Daura I found appealing in the art museum. This one portrays the color and feeling of his studio in Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, an extremely attractive village in south central France, within the Causses du Quercy Natural Regional Park. Daura was evidently trying to find the language of the landscape, using color and geometry to convey something beyond the reality we normally perceive and create in our minds.
I find most ukiyo-e landscapes attractive, and this is a detail from a work of 1857 by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858): “Distant View of Kinryuzan Temple and Azuma Bridge” shows some of the things I like about this genre. Notice how the figure in the foreground is cropped so you cannot see them? That is in the original work, not a result of my cropping the photo. Notice the flower petals drifting by in the wind? See how the foreground conveys the pleasure of being out on the water in a boat removed from the dense and crowded structures shown in the background? Wonderful.
This is a key block impression (for the black print, and absent all the color printing blocks) for a frontispiece illustration “Flags of Many Nations” made by Mizuno Toshikata (1866-1908). You can compare it to the illustration with the color block prints to see how much detail was added through the color blocks.
This is Mizuno Toshikata’s frontispiece (kuchi-e) woodblock print illustration for Flags of Many Nations (1904). This artist was one of the last ukiyo-e artists to use the style of the Edo Period (before the Meiji Restoration in 1868).
Detail from “Inside Kameido Tenjin Shrine” from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856), by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858).
Detail from “Famous Place of Tokyo, Shimizudo at Ueno Park: Cherry Blossoms” (1880), by Hiroshige III (1842-1891). The Japanese artists were happy to use the new pigment and colors of aniline red, and the purple and pink variations that came from it, when this European synthetic pigment arrived in the Japanese market in the 1880s. This is a detail of persons wearing Western dress during the Emperor Meiji’s visit to Ueno Park.
Here is how Hiroshige III portrayed the Meiji Emperor in 1880 (when the monarch would have been about 28 years-old), as the emperor visited Ueno Park to see Cherry Blossoms. In the Edo Period before the restoration of Imperial power in 1858, artists would not have painted pictures of the emperor, but during the modernization phase of the Meiji Period, the emperor (and portraits of him) symbolized Japan’s transformation into a modern nation.
Detail from “Fukugawa Lumber Yards” from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856), by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858).
Detail from “Asakusa Ricefields and Torinomachi Festival” from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856), by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). We see the interior of a courtesan’s private room, and she is evidently changing behind a screen.
A closer detail from “Asakusa Ricefields and Torinomachi Festival” to note the cat looking out the woman’s window and the festival parade across the ricefields seen through the window.
This is a print from 1863 by Hiroshige II (1826-1869) showing the 53 Stations of the Tokaido at a glance. It shows the same 53 stations illustrated by his teacher, Hiroshige I (1797-1858) in 1833, but does so in ten panels showing the stations from the air. The 53 stations were stops along the 300-mile highway between Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto.
Detail from “Clear Weather After Snow” from Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido (1833), by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). We see a roof ornament shaped like a fantastic golden fish.
Detail from “True View of Nagoya” from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856), by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). We see a roof ornament shaped like a fantastic golden fish.
This is a detail from "Chinese Imperial Palace in Mountain Landscape” one of two large folding screens by Ishida Yutei (mid 18th century).
This is a netsuke showing the immortal Liu Hai riding on the back of a toad, and sticking out his tongue. Very odd.
This netsuke shows, I believe, a fox priest, but the face is not very distinct. It reminds me of urZah, the Ritual Guardian mystic from Dark Crystal (1982).
A laughing umbrella demon netsuke. A culture that produces such strange fantastical entities and creates objects for daily use or collectors based on these nightmarish oddities exerts a pull on my curiosity and inspires appreciation in me.
A sumo wrestler frog. Sumo wrestlers are supposedly representative of honor and good things; frog spirits in the Japanese folklore I’ve read are dangerous and deceptive. I wonder what this combination of the two contrasting representations means to a person within the Japanese cultural traditions.
Kintoki or Kintaro is the “golden boy” of Japanese folklore, raised in the mountain wilds, he had superhuman strength, a strong affinity for animals and beasts, and he specialized in defeating monsters, as he was without fear. This is an 1835 print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi depicting Kintaro defeating the giant carp.
Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915) was a Ukiyo-e painter who picked up some western art techniques in the mid 1870s. This print of a cat chasing a mouse into a lantern was shown in 1886 at the First Japanese National Fine Arts Exhibition.
These are details from a sort of chutes and ladders (snakes and ladders) game (Sugoroku) illustrated by Utagawa Yoshikazu (歌川芳員), dating to 1858. The illustrations show various monsters.
This is one of the monsters in the Sugoroku game illustrated by Utagawa Yoshikazu in 1858.
Here is a work by Canadian Matthew Wong (1884-2019), titled “The Little Prince” (2017). Wong was a tragic figure with divergent cognitive abilities and a struggle with depression.
Oregon artist Andrew Myers created this visual work to accompany the first movement (Allegro) from Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber by Paul Hindemith (1895-1963). The work used cut-outs of silhouetted forms of Marbled Murrelet (an endangered bird of the Pacific Northwest Coast) to reveal the extinct oviraptor.
Seder Scene, 1949. By the Israeli artist Reuven Rubin (1893-1974).
“Home Coming in the Snow” (1995) by I-Hsiung Ju (朱一雄) (1923-2012). This image represents an actual event where I-Hsiung was fleeing Japanese soldiers and became lost at night in a snowstorm in a mountain area of Western Zhejiang province. He found a house, just as he was about to give up and die, and the people inside took him in and cared for him, saving his life. In the painting, he portrays two persons, but in the real experience, he was alone.
Detail from “Home Coming in the Snow” (1995) by I-Hsiung Ju (朱一雄) (1923-2012). I-Hsiung had an interesting life, and lived in the United States in his later years.
Jade pagoda made by Chinese or Manchurian craftspersons around 1711. There is a tradition in Chinese arts of creating models of pagodas, and Eugene’s museum has one of the most impressive ones I’ve ever seen.
This is a hanging scroll dated to around 1477, and it depicts Bhaiṣajyaguru （भैषज्यगुरु） (藥師佛) the Medicine Buddha, with Bodhisattvas of the Sun and Moon and Twelve Guardian Generals; Bhaiṣajyaguru cures suffering using good teachings as the remedy.
This shows some of the detail of the decorative dais upon which Bhaiṣajyaguru is sitting in the 15th century scroll painting.
This is an early 16th century copy of a famous earlier work. The work was copied by Wang Chao (汪肇). The scene is called, “Return of Tao Yuanming”. There are three scenes depicted in the scroll, and this one of a child waiting at an open gate is the top scene. Tao Yuanming was a poet of the late 4th and early 5th centuries. As a young man he had worked as a minor official, but found government work unsatisfying, and returned home to pursue farming and writing poems about nature and enjoying a simple life.
The worried or downcast faces of the women in this image gives the viewer an impression that these women have experienced something terrible. The work, by Hung Liu (刘虹) is “Women in the War - Comfort Women II” so the sense that something is darkly amiss is confirmed. The butterflies, also featured prominently in the scene, represent women’s freedom from violence, which is a goal of those who are active promoting the memories of those women forced into sexual servitude or slavery.
The Chinese have a sub-culture of nature enthusiasts who take special pleasure in the shapes and patterns of stones. One aspect of this hobby is the appreciation of cross sections of rocks in which shapes or patterns look like paintings of natural objects, and especially striations that resemble landscapes. This is an example of a carved slab of marble that exhibits a natural stone landscape, with the stone-cutting and framing in wood dating to the last decades of the Qing Dynasty (probably sometime between 1880 and 1910).
The Jordan Schnitzer Art Museum at the University of Oregon has an exceptionally good collection of clothing dating to the Qing Dynasty, much of it collected by Gertrude Bass Warner and Murray Warner, who lived in Shanghai in the first decade of the 20th century, and collected Chinese clothing from about 1900 until 1933, when the collection was donated to the University of Oregon, in the hopes that the people of Oregon would be encouraged to seek friendly relations with Chinese, and take a more international view of the world. This particular garment is a Manchu officer’s ceremonial armor, dating to about 1909-1910.
Chinese Woman's Nonofficial Semiformal or Informal Coat with Auspicious Symbol, Floral Roundel and Landscape Design. This coat dates to 1875-1900, and was one of many coats and other clothing items that Gertrude Bass Warner donated to the museum. She collected many of these items while living in China up to 1909.
Manchu Empress's Semiformal Court Surcoat (Kunfu) with Five-Clawed Dragon Roundel and Wave Design, dating to 1875-1900. Art museum at the University of Oregon
Detail of the Manchu Empress's Semiformal Court Surcoat.
Display case of Chinese art treasures, mostly (but not entirely) from the Qing Dynasty, displayed in the Art museum at the University of Oregon (the Jordan Schnitzer Art Museum).
Peach-shaped vessel with bat, dating to the 18th century (late Qing Dynasty).
Bowl with Lion and Auspicious Trigram Design from the Yongzheng period (1722-1736) of the Qing Dynasty.
Slender Bottle with Blossoming Plum, Bamboo, and Bird Design; Qianlong period (1736-1795) of Qing Dynasty.
Red glass bowl with flaring lip from the Qianlong period (1736-1795) of the Qing Dynasty.
Pilgrim flask with auspicious Shou emblem, dragon, and cloud designs, dating to the Qianlong period (1736-1795) of the Qing Dynasty.
Jade Censer in the form of a bronze ritual covered serving vessel (Dou), made of white nephrite, and dating to the 18th century.
Rock crystal carved into a faceted vase with elephant bosses and recumbent lion, dated to 1775, during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.
Longevity Mountain (Shoushan), a carved brown nephrite stone probably fashioned into the scene of the Queen Mother of the West in the 18th century.
A seated Bodhisattva Maitreya carved from Schist in the 3rd-5th century in a Buddhist kingdom that existed where Pakistan and Afghanistan are now found.
This is The Star Makers (ca. 1955) by Pierre Daura (1896-1976). It “visualizes the themes circulating through [Daura’s] early Surrealist work, which espoused the beauty of the unconscious in dreams, and his mature musings on the ancient connections between magic and art.” Daura was inspired through his correspondence and friendship with the poet André Breton.
This is a contemporary hanging scroll with ink on paper by the Korean artist Her Suyoung (1972 - ). The piece is titled “My Cob” in reference to strong reliable horses of legend and history, but Her has substituted his bicycle for the horse in what is otherwise a landscape in the traditional Northern Song tradition.
A Korean faceted blue-and-white bottle with floral design from the late 19th to early 20th century at the end of the Joseon dynasty.
This lovely little Korean horn cup with a chrysanthemum design dates back to the Goryeo dynasty, in the 12th century.
Here is something unusual: a painting by a North Korean artist (Seonu Yeong, 1946-2009). This is a landscape showing the Ullim Pokpo (Echoing Falls).
Flora, ca. 1840, steel engraving on paper by Albert Henry Payne (British, 1812-1902), after Joseph-Désiré Court (French, 1797-1865).
Bertha, 1851, steel engraving on paper by Albert Henry Payne (British, 1812-1902), after Joseph-Désiré Court (French, 1797-1865).
Gaussian Fireworks by Ellen Eischen. These are plots of Gaussian periods, answers to the question: “Which shapes can you draw with an unmarked straightedge and compass, if you require all the edges to be the same length and the angles all to be equal to each other?”
Gold Mosaic dome in the memorial courtyard at the University of Oregon’s museum of art.
The exterior of the art museum in Eugene, Oregon
White flowers of Catalpa speciosa (Northern Catalpa) on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon
One of many fine roses to admire on the university campus in Eugene, Oregon
The campus of the University of Oregon has many fine little flower gardens and impressive trees. This rose garden near the Knight Library offers some pleasure to those who visit, work, or live on campus.
As I walked around the U of Oregon campus, I went to Walton Hall, where Arthur lived during his freshman year in 2017-18. These rhododendrons were still in bloom there.
California golden poppies in bloom at the University of Oregon.
Some azaleas in bloom at the university.
I stopped by Hayward Field (across the street from the apartment where Arthur and Sebastian live), and saw the women’s 800 meter races for the national championships. This is Gabrielle Wilkinson, who finished third in the nation with a time of 2 minutes, 1.20 seconds, her personal best time ever.
Yes, the University of Oregon has some impressive trees on the campus.
This is a massive European Purple Leaf Beech Tree growing outside Gerlinger Hall.
Looking up into the Purple Leaf Beech Tree.
Oregon landscape near the small town of Jefferson, Oregon
Wheat field and tree east of State Route 164, north of Jefferson, Oregon.
Low clouds on a rainy June day looking east from the Jefferson Highway near Weaver Gulch.
Typical Willamette Valley landscape in June. This is in the Miller Creek watershed.
At my mother’s home in Tigard, Oregon I can spend time watching birds like this red-breasted nuthatch come to the feeders.
A male Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna) on my mom’s back deck.
A male Anna’s Hummingbird. They reside year-round in the Portland area.
The red metallic colors of a male Anna’s Hummingbird impress me.
The hummingbirds use their tongue to eat, and they seem to be sticking out their tongues much of the time when I photograph them.
At my mother’s home in Tigard, Oregon. Roses from her garden.

Link to other photo albums

First days of the drive to Oregon

Middle section of the drive to Oregon