Mom in Town: Day 2

Mount Washington Viewpoint with views of North Sister (left) and Mount Washington (right)

Today we drove over The Cascades to go check in on the old Newbill Homestead which mom last visited when she was in high school.  I had been trying for a couple weeks to get a hold of the current landowners, but had been unsuccessful even though I easily found out who it was.  So the trip was a bit of a gamble, since my plan was to simply drive to the current landowner's house and ask permission the old fashioned way.  So we drove over, stopping first at the Mount Washington Viewpoint and then again at Sisters Coffee Company.

We easily found the entrance to the road to the old Newbill Homestead and, as I expected, it was gated and locked.  But within minutes, the landowner of the road entrance and gate showed up to check on us.  He was friendly enough and turned out to be a descendant of the Newbill Family!  Unfortunately, he wasn't willing to take us down to the Homestead because even though he owned the gate, he didn't own the property that the actual Homestead was located on.

So we drove down the road another mile or two to the actual landowners homesite and drove up their hill to ask permission.  They were friendly and granted us permission to to visit the site, but said we couldn't drive down to it because of fire risk.  So we went back to the gate and tried to figure out a way to get mom through the gate since there wasn't a mangate and there was no way she was going to climb over.  In the end, we settled on crawling underneath which wasn't much fun for her, but we made do.  The day was already in the low 70s, but there was a nice breeze and we each had water.  Unfortunately, the walk down to the Homestead was about a mile and of course, there was no shade.  In the back of our minds was the fact that the entire walk back to the car would be uphill.

We got to the Homestead and looked around.  The home is still standing, but is entirely exposed to the elements and is inhabited by birds.  There's lots of broken glass and boards with exposed nails and the floor doesn't look like it could support much weight so we didn't go inside.  The cemetery is within sight and an easy walk, but mom was tired so she stayed behind at the home while I walked over to try and catch up with a side-by-side we had seen drive over there.  The occupants were family members of the landowners who were friendly enough, but not willing to give us a ride back to our cars since there was no room.  And ultimately they left.

I took pictures of the gravesites and then walked back to the home site where mom was waiting.  About the time I got back, a pickup showed up driven by another family member of the landowners.  He offered to drive mom over to the cemetery while I stayed behind to take pictures of the home.  In short order, the driver came back, picked me up, and he drove us up to our car saving us a long, hot walk, and crawling under the gate again.  Seeing the old Homestead was very neat and the one thing that was a surprise to me was how great the view was.  I had always wondered why the home had been built on that exact site which was out in the open, but I figured it out: from the home, you have a great view of The Cascades!  And the view is only from that exact point; a little to the left or a little to the right and hills obscure the larger peaks on the distant horizon.

The view of Mount Jefferson and Mount Hood from SE Grizzly Road (above) which is the closest public road to the Homestead

The view of Mount Thielson, Smith Rock, The Sisters, and Three Finger Jack from the old Newbill Homestead (above and below)