I’m staying at John Day for the month of October volunteering at Kam Wah Chung.  While there I’m exploring the area.

The tourist brochure for Grant County listed the top 20 tourist sights and included the Humongous Fungus with a note to see the chamber of commerce or forest service for more information.  My interest was perked.  The Humongous Fungus was in the top 20 sites to visit in Grant County!  I located the chamber of commerce office and went in to get the information on this interesting site.  The gentleman there had heard of it but couldn’t find any information on it.  He couldn’t remember if he had ever visited it.  He suggested I visit the forest service office, so off I went.  At the forest service office the lady looked around a bit and then found the information for me.  Then she pointed on the map (that she gave me) where I should go to see the Humongous Fungus.  When I pointed out to her that the area wasn’t where the map located the Humongous Fungus, her reply was: “it is all the same.”  I was getting more intrigued about the Humongous Fungus. It didn’t appear to be a hot tourist spot.

Armillaria ostoyae, the humongous fungus.  Photo from Scientific America.

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