Our Oregon Trail

Text by Henry
Photos by Loretta


Annnnd, we're back!

After spending May and June making our way north through California, we arrived in Oregon at the beginning of July. Our first stop was a week at Diamond Lake Campground.

Diamond Lake

It's a very woodsy forest service campground with no hookups, no cell signal, and a zillion mosquitoes. One of the things we have enjoyed about traveling in the western US is the lack of bugs, but that wasn't the case at Diamond Lake. One of the highlights here is an 11 mile paved trail that completely circles the lake making for a great bike ride.

Bike Trail around Diamond Lake

THE highlight here, though, is that Crater Lake National Park is only a few miles away and we made several visits.

Crater Lake

With a depth of 1,943 feet deep, Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States. It was created 7,700 years ago when Mt. Mazama collapsed after a violent eruption. The lake is fed entirely by rain and snow melt, making it one of the clearest in the world.

Crater Lake
What BLUE looks like

Crater Lake is BLUE! And I mean it's the most incredible blue you can imagine. We were there on an absolutely clear blue sky day and we were just mesmerized by the lake.

The Crater Lake Lodge was a great place to enjoy a refreshment while hanging out on their back patio that overlooks the lake.

Crater Lake Lodge
faces Crater Lake

We moved further north to a location where we were able to explore Newberry National Volcanic Monument. This area consists of forests, lakes, lava flows, mountain peaks, and waterfalls.

Newberry National Volcanic Monument

The waterfalls were a spectacular sight, and one of only a few double waterfalls we have been fortunate enough to see.  A rather steep descent along the wildflower lined trail led us to Paulina Falls.

Paulina Falls

The Big Obsidian Flow was created about 1,300 years ago and covers over 700 acres. We accessed the top of the flow by stairs and from that vantage point, we could see the jet black lava rocks piled high across the forest floor.

The Big Obsidian Flow

Finally, we drove the steep gravel, washboard road with hairpin turns to the summit of Paulina Peak and were totally awe-struck at the totally amazing 360 degree views from the peak! The elevation was 7,984 feet and pictures don't do it justice.

View of Paulina Lake
from
Paulina Peak

The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show was something Loretta had on her bucket list. According to their website, "the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show is internationally recognized as the world's largest outdoor quilt show and quilt sale displaying more than 1,300 quilts representing fiber artists from around the world".  She has decided to do a separate blog post with photos of many of the quilts displayed there, so look for that soon.

Sisters, Oregon Outdoor Quilt Show

While Loretta was attending the quilt show Henry went on a hike in the Three Sisters Wilderness. The Sisters are three snow capped peaks that are part of the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, a portion of the hike went through a blackened forest from wildfires last summer. There was plenty of unburned forest along the hike, too, and good views of the Sisters and more of the Oregon Cascade peaks to the north.

North Sister and  Middle Sister
from the Trail

After the quilt show was over, we were able to get a campsite at the Sisters Creekside Campground located right at the edge of town. We spent a few leisurely days walking and biking around this cool little mountain town.

Moving along, we spent a week near Mt. Hood, which at 11,250 feet is Oregon's highest peak. It's quite an impressive snow capped mountain visible for many miles in all directions.

Mt. Hood from a Distance

Mt. Hood receives so much snow that skiing can be done year round. This is simply amazing to us folks from the South! Here in the middle of July, we saw dozens of people skiing on the slopes near the Timberline Lodge, which by the way is another historic old lodge.

Timberline Lodge

Cozy Seating Area in Timberline Lodge

Our next location was just outside the big city of Portland in a nice county park. One of the things I'm pretty good at is finding my way around - even in places I've never been to before. Sometimes I just amaze Loretta getting around in our travels. Portland was NOT one of these places. We had to rely on Google Maps to get around. Everywhere we went it seemed we were driving through neighborhoods with so many twists and turns and it took forever to get anywhere. I wasn't sure if it's the way the city is laid out or Google was as confused as I was. We did manage to get around.

We spent a day walking around part of downtown Portland with the 2 most memorable stops being Powell's Books and the Deschuttes Brewery.

Portland Building
(taken through windshield)

We went to one of the better farmers' markets in our journeys in the town of Milwaukie.

We spent a day at Silver Falls State Park, which is Oregon's largest state park. We hiked the Trail of Ten Falls, which (you guessed it) goes by ten waterfalls.

Waterfall on Trail

Upper North Falls

Large Tree across Waterfall Trail

So, after spending most of our summer in the Sierra Nevadas and Cascades, where it happened to be on the warm side, next we headed to the cooler Washington Coast!