Ritter Hot Springs, eastern Oregon

Ritter Hot Springs


camped nearby - about a mile away - overnight

got there at around 8 in the morning ...

the Ritter swimming pool was closed for cleaning

using their telephone in front of the general store, I called the number and talked with a woman about other pools at Ritter

... walked across the swinging bridge which is downstream from the suspension bridge you see upon first arriving ...

and found the four little cement rooms painted blue up on the hill with warm water in them ... very eastern Oregon ... the cement would hold water ... steps into the pools ... blue paint under the water that was only partial ... not very comfortable ... wondered if these were around in 1902, per a photo I saw in the general store ...


Since there were so few people at Ritter ... I saw 3 people, 2 a couple who looked to be birding and 3 nice cars, each shaped like a Honda Odyssey, ... I went into the old, nonfunctioning, jacuzzi pool near the new-ish house near the 4 cement pool rooms ... on the opposite side of the creek and soaked ... The new-ish house looked like a comfortable rental with lots of wood inside and out ... Naked, the water in the jacuzzi was a comfortable temperature, and the rock formations and rugged, rocky, eastern Oregon landscape around were nice 'musical scores.'

Having asked the owner's wife about a shower on the phone, she had told me there was one, with the same water out of the ground as in the pools in what she called the 'cells,' on the Ritter's main area's side of the bridge, right next to the creek ... I took a welcome shower after the warm pool, got clean and headed toward Ted & Mary's near La Grande and Union, Oregon.


I took Forest Service road number 19, less than a mile from Ritter, which soon became dirt, back this time, and saw most amazing open, Eastern Oregon country. In looking for Ritter the evening before, I had seen Rd. # 19, also called Bone Point Road at the other end, and it was the much shorter way back. ... fun adventure into beauty ...


Drove back through Ukiah, OR, then to La Grande ... stopped and called Reed College president's Office, and was able to set up a meeting for Monday, called CT and T & M.

Such good news to meet with Reed's Colin Diver ... to ask if he would be on World University & School's Board of Directors / Clerks






... took a number of photos











(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2011/07/ritter-hot-springs-eastern-oregon.html - July 9, 2011)