Back at LaPine SP

After my sister left to fly home, we moved back down to LaPine State Park for a few days. Bailey went back into Bend and got a haircut. Now he is too cute for his own good again. Emily just enjoyed the time alone. Later on we met back up with my niece and drove up to the eclectic little town of Sisters. We wandered the town and had lunch at the local Mexican restaurant. I really miss good Mexican food up here in the north country.

The next day we decided to check out the other area of the Newberry Crater Natl Volcanic Monument. Just south of us is Paulina Lake and Obsidian Mountain. This mountain is the largest obsidian lava flow in the world. It is literally a mountain of glass.  It was the result of an explosion of 73% silica containing metal oxides. The heat turned it to glass and the metal turned it black and into obsidian. It was an amazing hike to the top.

Obsidian

Mountain of glass

Show-off

View of Paulina Lake from top of Obsidian Mtn.

Around the Bend

We moved up closer to Bend, outside Sunriver. My sister and husband arrived from Virginia. We all went up to my niece's house and went out to dinner.

We all met up on Saturday morning and headed up north of Bend to Tumelo Falls. It was a pretty steep hike up to the falls and then about a mile up to the second falls. The day was beautiful and there were a lot of people hiking and biking. The falls were beautiful. Emily and Bailey had a grand time.

Nick, Lisa and Moira at Tumelo Falls

Tumelo Falls

Upper Falls

The Family is all here

Emily and Bailey at Tumelo Falls

Later there was a BBQ with friends and family back in Bend.

My niece borrowed an extra canoe and we strapped all of them onto our trucks and away we went to a large lake at the base of Mt Bachelor. We paddled around for a while and had a picnic on the beach. This was the first time I had ever been in a canoe. After we loaded up the canoes, we went up to take the ski lift up to the top of Mt Bachelor. It was a grand view all the way up. There was a restaurant up top and we had a little happy hour. It was just a great day.

Truck looks good with canoe on top

Mt Bachelor

Ski Lift up Mt Bachelor

Peak of Mt Bachelor

Trip back down

View from the top

On Sunday we all met at the High Desert Museum. It has a very nice collection of the local flora and fauna. There was also a very good display and interpretation of the local Indian population. There was a small village with an operating saw mill. After that later in the afternoon we did a little pub crawling among the many micro-breweries in Bend.

My sister and husband drove back to Portland the next day to catch a plane back to VA on Tuesday.

What a great visit.

Over the river and through the woods

Collier Memorial State Park is home to the largest collection of manual logging equipment from the late 1800's up through WWII. We could hike from our campsite along the river and over onto the museum grounds. John had a wonderful time wandering among all that equipment. Some of it represents the last pieces that survived being scrapped for WWII.

Arched Bridge of many Plies

Emily & Bailey checking the view

 

 

Maybe I can fix this...........

 

Smokey Crater Lake

We moved to Collier Memorial State Park to be close to Crater Lake NP. I can remember from years ago the amazing blue of the water that can't be captured on film.

Campsite at Collier Memorial SP

This time there are several large forest fires southwest of the park and the winds are blowing all the smoke right over Crater Lake. The visibility was awful and there was no seeing the blue of the water. This year has been extremely dry in OR and the forests are easily ignited by lightening. The smoke was so thick that my camera was having trouble focusing. We drove all the way around on the Rim Loop. We had a picnic on the north side where the smoke wasn't as thick.

Approaching the Crater up through a narrow canyon

 

 

 

 

Famous Pirate Ship Island that can only be seen from one spot on the rim

Camping in LaPine SP

Approaching Bend, OR you can see the snow covered Three Sisters Mtns. We are heading for LaPine State Park. Since we have to go through Bend, I called my niece and we are going to meet her for lunch. We went down to the old mill section along the river which has been developed into a shopping and restaurant area. Afterwards we all walked along the river with Emily and Bailey. It was warm and Bailey took a little dip in the river.

The Three Sisters

We are camped at LaPine SP which is home to the largest Ponderosa Pine in the state - 326 inches in circumference and 191 feet high.

Campsite at LaPine SP

Big Tree and friends

Big Tree

River running through LaPine SP

 The next day we drove up to the Lava Beds Visitor Center of the Newberry Crater Natl. Volcanic Monument. There is a large cinder cone there and we drove up to the top. It was quite a view.

Up the Cinder Cone we go

 

Truck on Top

View from the top

 There is also an ice cave you can tour. I'm not much on caving so I just peeked inside.

Ice Cave

Heading round the Bend

After we left Arco, we moved on to spend several days in Boise. This turned out to be my only bad experience with KOA. They had us packed in there tighter than sardines. There was no room to maneuver the truck. I had to open the trailer door carefully to avoid hitting the truck. They weren't real keen on dogs either.

Left Boise and parked in a lovely RV park in Burns, OR. This entire area is farmland growing potatoes, sugar beets and onions. They were being harvested and the entire area reeked of onions.

Look out Bend - here we come.

Craters of the Moon

Continued westward across the arid plains of eastern Idaho. We pulled into a little town, Arco. Of all places on earth, this is where they put the first peaceful use of nuclear power to see if it was practical. They built the first electric producing nuclear reactor right on an ancient fault line of known volcanic activity.

First Peaceful Use of Nuclear Power

About 20 miles down the road is Craters of the Moon Natl Monument. When we first drove in we went through the campground and found the site we had used 25 years ago when we first discovered this gem of a park.

It is a huge lava field which resulted from several eruptions over thousands of years. It is an amazing unbelievable landscape.

There are examples of flowing lava, cinder cones, lava tubes, ice caves and spatter cones.

Spatter Cone

Lava Flow

Ropey Lava Flow

Lava Flow like Taffy

Cinder Cone

Ice Cave

 There are also examples of nature's resilience.

At one parking lot we spotted a camper with International tags on it. It had stickers from all over the world on it, like Dubai and Germany. They've been all over the world and now they were at Craters of the Moon. Amazing.