The High Desert Museum

Since I'll be leaving for Indiana next week, we thought it would be good to have a quick family get-away so with the help of a gift certificate from Laura and Jamey, we headed for Sunriver resort today. Before getting to our condo, though, we stopped at The High Desert Museum just south of Bend. Jeannette, Jordan and Phillip had been there before, but not the rest of us. We had an extremely pleasant 2+ hours strolling through the museum and its outdoor displays. It's a very nice museum, the weather was perfect for it today and I was surprised at how diverse the exhibits were.

There was a lot of information about wildlife and Melody got her first close-up view of some salmon . . .


I'm not sure what this was supposed to be since it was set next to some archaeological stuff, but we decided it was just a big spider web . . .


There was quite a bit of information and displays about the early settlers, Indians, miners and timber workers . . .

MelodyJoy got to experience firsthand an old-fashioned outhouse . . .


The highlight of the tour for me probably was the display of a golden eagle and two American bald eagles. What amazing, huge birds. It was also interesting to get an up-close look at a northern spotted owl and see it rotate its head all the way around. I've read about it often but never observed it myself.