Baker City has one of our favorite hotels -- the Geyser Grand. This hotel was almost lost in the years following the filming of "Paint Your Wagon" staring Clint Eastwood. During the filming, it was used by the cast of the film. When built, the Geyser Grand was the finest hotel between Saint Louis and Seattle, and the first hotel in Oregon with an elevator. It fell into disrepair and the only thing that saved it was a bequest from a wealthy Baker City citizen who stipulated that his estate would be used to restore and renovate the hotel. We have stayed there twice before and enjoyed it each time. Check it out: http://www.geisergrand.com/
The last time through the area, on our way home, we stumbled on a road just outside a rest stop that took our breath away. It twists and turns in a magnificent meandering tumble off the Oregon high plateau down to the flats outside of the tiny town of Meachum. This time we did it in reverse, climbing the curves until we reached the rest stop at the top. Although I am not certain, I believe that this route was one of the ways folks on the Oregon Trail took on their way down to the Columbia River valley. Roxy, our Infiniti FX-35, had a lot of fun showing off her sport package and took the tight turns and nice sweepers in stride.
Instead of going directly into Baker City, since this was going to be a short day, we decided to take the long way through the mountains that were snowbound during our past visits. We turned off I-84 at North Powder and quickly found ourselves in a quandary. It was evident that there was a forest fire burning in the mountains and a large pasture just off the interstate had been converted into a fire camp. We watched as a helicopter carrying a water bucket soared up towards the peaks, and were confronted by signs saying to watch out for fire traffic. We spotted smoke rising and figured we would have to turn back, but at a check point we were assured that although the road though the mountains had been closed earlier in the week, it was now open and we should have no problem. So off we went to visit the old mining towns between North Powder and Baker City. The most picturesque is Granite, barely hanging on these days, consisting of a general store and a Bed & Breakfast that appears to operate on an infrequent basis. The route through the mountains, although adding almost 100 miles to the trip, was worth the effort.
After the typical fantastic meal at the Geyser Grand, we settled down to sleep. I should mention that Marilyn likes a cool room for sleeping, so she cranked the A/C and we settled in. I can fall asleep at the drop of a hat, so I am quickly in dream-land. Around oh-dark-thirty I am awakened to Marilyn complaining that the fire alarm was going off. She called the front desk and we learn that the new system has some kind of fault and if the room is too cold it starts beeping. Huh??? Oh, and it will take a long time for it to turn off even if we set the A/C down so they will let us move into another room. Great -- can we just go sleep in the other room and skip schlepping our junk? I don't remember much after that -- I went to the other room and promptly fell sound asleep again. When I woke up I discovered that my sweetheart and the night clerk had moved everything, and was told that I had been a bad boy, argued with them, and I was in trouble. Again. I swear, that was my evil twin -- really!
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