Kathleen's Window: “Less Responsibility... More Joy!!!” We're Loving Oregon!

June 5, 2014

Sitting along the Deschutes River near the confluence with the mighty Columbia River at the Deschutes River State Recreation Area, and contemplating my 62^nd birthday. This one I am happy to celebrate. Once I get my Senior Pass, for $10 for life, we will be eligible for free admission and half priced camping at all federal lands; including national parks, national forests, historic sites, Army Corps of Engineers, wildlife refuges and BLM lands. My frugalista self is quite happy, as this is a big deal considering all the traveling we are doing! Anything to stretch the $ and time to travel a bit longer. We decided to take a short break and spend two nights here. The last few days since we left Eugene have been busy, and Saturday we are hoping to take public transit into Portlandia.

After leaving Ann and John's on Sunday, we re-supplied and drove east about 60 miles along the McKenzie River to the Forest Service campground, Delta. Another night in the thick woods next to a babbling stream and we were off the next day, heading towards Sisters and Bend.

Delta campsite

On our route was Sahalie Falls, recommended by Ann as worth a stop. A short hike took us to a lush, splashy falls tumbling through thick forest. Back on the road we took the “easy” route to Sisters. The high road through McKenzie Pass was still closed by snow, so a smaller pass took us through the cutesie town of Sisters. We continued on towards Bend, oohing and aahing at the spectacular Casacade volcanic peaks, still snow covered and marching in a north-south line as we crossed them. The Three Sisters watched us as we traveled down to Bend. Once we crossed over the Cascades, the climate became arid, as it is in the rain shadow from the mountains. No more ferns and moss, but lots of grassy fields, horses and more “cowboy stuff”.

Sahalie Falls

Looking down from the top of Sahalie Falls

Luxuriant greenery in the mist, on the west side of the Cascades

"I could fit in there"

The "Cowboy Cute" town of Sisters

We rolled through Bend on the Business 97 commercial strip, and south out the other side. The day was lengthening and we were headed for Newberry National Volcanic Monument, south of Bend, for the night. The visitor center was open only another half hour and closed the next two days, which meant no passes to the top of small Lava Butte or the interesting sounding Lava River Cave. We had a great conversation with a ranger, who was pleased to find visitors actually interested in the geology of the place. This monument makes it extra easy to interest visitors in the geology, since they make the visit very “user-friendly”. She gave us some history of the region. The Oregon Trail came through Bend. By this time in the journey the travelers were exhausted, mother's were bashing their babies on rocks to spare them a gruesome death, and they had lost hope of ever reaching the end of the trail. When they saw the Three Sisters peaks, they knew the worst was over. The peaks were nicknamed Faith, Hope, and Charity, from the Christian scriptures. Behind them were also the peaks called Little Brother, and The Husband, and The Wife, with Separation Creek running between them.

The Three Sisters

Park staff decided humans would not remember the warnings so they warned the squirrels directly!

Back in the rig we climbed up into the Newberry Caldera, forested this time, unlike the other craters we have seen on this trip. This collapsed crater has two lakes inside it. It is the second largest after Crater Lake. There were still patches of snow in the woods, and most of the hiking trails and the road to 7984' Paulina Peak on the rim were closed. The temperature dropped from 84 degrees in Bend to 50 degrees. Uh-oh, another cold night at high elevation. (Greg said I snored all night. Must have been the elevation!)

We found a lakefront site on the far side of East Lake, at a nearly deserted Cinder Hill campground. The lakefront was pretty, but not anywhere near as beautiful as Diamond Lake. There were a few boats out fishing. The next morning we packed up and drove to the Big Obsidian Flow. This is the newest, at 1,300 years old, and the largest in Oregon. Another user friendly site, it had a trail and steps up the side and across the top, as well as signboards explaining the site. We compared it to Obsidian Dome that we climbed in the Sierra-Nevada. Not as much obsidian (the glass rocks formed during certain stages of a volcanic eruption), but fun to climb around, see the great view of Paulina Lake and Peak, and the distant Three Sisters, and break trail through the snow piles in 65 degree temperatures.

Cinder Hill Camp, nice but cold

Our beach near the camp

The lower edge of Obsidian Flow, where is stopped 1,300 years ago

Tightly contorted flow banding of obsidian and pumice layers

Massive obsidian at a lava vent "squeeze up"

This pumice boulder was 90% gas bubbles

Paulina Lake from the top of Big Obsidian Flow

This pine looked like it had survived a hard life

Not feeling too inspired by the rest of the park, we stopped to dump the rig at the only dump station for all the campgrounds in the crater. First of all, we were quite annoyed the night before since the park literature posted the dry camping overnight fee at $16, and a duct tape sticker at the campground raised it to $18. Then when we got to the dump, we encountered our first pay machine to dump. $10 in the slot and you have one minute to raise the cover off the dump hole. This is the first time that we have been expected to pay to camp and not have dumping included. Our inexpensive night just went up $10. The night before at Delta campground we also encountered an increased rate that was not reflected on the forest service website. We would find the same thing at the next site. The forest service has been turning over the running of the campgrounds to concessionaires, three separate ones in our cases, and the fees are going up, but it seems to be arbitrary and only listed at the campground. They also post signs saying that discount cards, such as the one I will be acquiring, can be turned down at the concessionaire's discretion! Not happy!!! (We exercised civil disobedience, paid the lesser amount as posted on the website. Getting rebellious in our old age!)

Dump Station cash machine

Birds nest in the former money box for the dump station

After our grumpy dumping, we drove back down off the crater through smoke. Apparently there was a prescribed burn going on someplace in the area, so we didn't get to enjoy the view of the Cascades on the way down. Grumpy, grumpy, time to find a brewpub for lunch in Bend, in the land of “Beervana”. Our only problem was which of the many microbrew pubs to go to. Bend even has the Bend Ale Trail, you can drive it or bike it to 14 different microbreweries, (and get a prize if you get stamps from all of them!), and many of them have outdoor areas for kids and dogs! We checked our favorite blog Wheeling It, and took their advice. Crux Fermentation Project was easy to get to, with a big parking lot and no downtown to deal with. RV'er friendly!

You could even buy non-alcoholic "doggie-brew"

No Fish&Chips. Here in Bend they serve a Vietnamese Ban Mhi sandwich. Kathleen had a fabulous quinoa berry salad!

Steampunk brewery sculpture

Our server was Lacie, and we had great food, great brews, and a fun time getting to know her. A recent transplant from Portland, she was loving the sunshine and warm temps. She was curious about our lifestyle and gave me the quote of the day, or possibly for our travels, too. Drumroll please...”Less responsibility...More Joy!”. Works for us. Thanks Lacie, it was great to meet you. Enjoy Bend! I suspect we'll be back.

We followed up with a quick drive downtown in the park along the Deschutes River and drove north out of town. Between the hike and the brews, we used up most of the day, so we stopped at the Haystack Reservoir north of Redmond and found a lakeside, dry camp for the night. The charge had been raised from the website cost of $10 to $12. I know, only $2, but the longer we stretch the money, the longer we travel. We haven't been able to boondock for quite a while, since we left the eastern side of the Sierra-Nevada. The reservoir was picturesque and we had a great front row seat for the ospreys diving for fish and flying with them back to their nests.

We heard ospreys diving even with the windows closed

Wednesday morning we got back heading north on Route 97 and continued towards the Columbia River Gorge. The land became more arid as we drove north and slightly east. We rose up to a low pass and stopped to look at the line of north-south trending Cascade Mountains. We could see Rainier, Adams, St. Helen's, Hood, Jefferson, Washington, North Sister, Middle Sister, South Sister, Bachelor, and mixed in somewhere, Broken Top, and Three Fingered Jack! They were beautiful shimmering with their snow capes above the dry, grassy rolling hills in front of us.

Mt. Adams way to the northwest

As we drove we saw many wind turbines on nearby hills and on a ridge in the distance, and figured we were getting close to the Columbia River Gorge with it's infamous winds. We drove down into Spanish Hollow and abruptly found the river at Biggs Junction. Across the bridge were the cliffs of the Washington side, lined with wind turbines as well. A quick pit stop at a Pilot Truckstop re-filled our fuel tank and we drove west on the old Route 30 instead of I-84 where traffic whizzed by between us and the river. A few miles down the road we found the Deschutes River State Recreation Area and discovered an oasis in the dry river valley. The sprinklers were busily watering the grassy lawn, bushes, and trees along the river bank. We took a site along the river and under a shade tree. It's hot, but dry here! We opted out of the hookups ($22), and went for a $10 site with access to water and showers. The solar panels are struggling in the shade, but the breeze, which seems to pick up every evening, is keeping things delightful.

Major Rail lines follow the Columbia Gorge

Deschutes Campsite

Beautiful camp right near the Deschutes River. Bare cliffs are across river in Washington

Preparing for a bike ride with much criticism by the local geese

Friday, June 6th- Also our 33^rd wedding anniversary!

This morning, we switched sites. We decided to enjoy this park another night. Our site is reserved for tonight, so we moved one over. Greg is taking a second bike ride today up the Deschutes River Gorge. Yesterday he was gone for six hours because he had to change two flat tires due to the puncturevine and goathead thorns. We still have some shade, and a view of the river until someone takes our old spot. Tomorrow we will drive farther west toward Portland. We decided to delay our visit until Monday. The RV parks are filled up this weekend due to the Rose Festival. Watch for the post with our visit to Portlandia!