Thanks to all that took some time to give some advice to us. We had a good
time. A whole lot of driving with a bit of hiking here and there.
Drove from the Bay Area to Bend on day 1. Highway 97 was a nice drive.
One thing we got a kick out of was the highway signs. "Rocks". "Speed 55".
"Hey Turkey, if you are not passing, get your butt into the right lane!".
Ok, I paraphrased the last one... but I just love it. No one in view
for miles and some clown is driving in the left lane in California.
We got a kick out of the brevity of the signs and ended up at places
like Mt. Hood and we'd just point to it and say "Hill" and "Rock".
Luckily Oregonians don't pay attention to the "Speed 55" signs (thought I was in the
Bay Area for awhile).
Welcome Sign on Highway 97:
Near Bend is Newberry Volcanic National Monument and some neat, uh,
volcanic stuff. Spent the entire day around that area. One thing
we did was the "Lava River Cave". A nearly 1 mile lava tube you
can walk in. No guide required. Definitely recommend.
After that we drove to the "Tree Molds" area. Definitely an interesting
place, but the drive on washboarded road was a pain in the rump,
and since we had been to other places that had tree molds this
was a "hmm... should have skipped this" one. From there drove to
Paulina Lake. As we kept finding out... lots of stuff closes come
October in Oregon. So instead of a nice meal at Paulina Resort Restaurant
we had some nice snacks over at East Lake on our Z Rests.
Then went over and check out The Obsidian Flow. Super cool. Very highly
recommend. Originally was going to hike up Paulina Peak.. but lookie
there... a road.
From there you can see The Obsidian Flow and Paulina and East Lakes:
Newberry Volcanic NM - Paulina Peak Overlook:
From there we drove to Sisters. Original plan was to hike South Sister
(that got nixed by the boss)... and then next plan was to go to
Mt. Bachelor... that one we just plain ran out of time spending all day
at Newberry. Since we still had daylight we went and checked out Metolius headwaters.
I was really looking forward to this. But quite honestly it was a
disappointment. It's definitely worth seeing. But this one just went
into the realm of stuff we had already seen elsewhere. Big Springs
in Yellowstone astounded us. Huge spring pouring out .. and bang, a river.
Just like Metolius. For some reason Metolius just didn't move
us like Big Spring did in Yellowstone.
After that, again, we kept finding out most campgrounds close by Oct.
So we just bailed into the woods and spent the night. (It's NF!)
Next day headed up to Timberline Trai and Mt. Hood. Ooops. Um.. fill
up with gas before leaving. Or go way the heck out of your way to
find some gas. Luckily I didn't have to hike many miles to get some
gas (it was darn close to happening). Silver lining was we happened
upon a couple of really nice waterfalls heading back:
McKenzie River - Sahalie Falls:
Got to Mt. Hood area and hiked some of Timberline Trail. The lift wasn't
running to take us up higher so we just hiked a bit of Timerline Trail.
By bit I mean, well, not much. It was enough for us though.
Mt. Hood:
Then drove to Lost Lake to check out. Short hike and then off to The Dalles
for the night at El Cheopo Hotel.
Lost Lake - Mt. Hood:
Next day we spent exploring Columbia River Gorge. We spent a few hours at
"Columbia River Gorge Discovery Center" and "Wasco County Museum". Obviously
we went at low season since we were the only ones in this museum. Just an
excellent museum with lots of history on Lewis and Clark and The Gorge.
Highly recommend it.
Columbia River Gorge:
We braved the wind and hiked The PCT over The Bridge of The Gods. Then hiked around Cascade Locks
some looking for the start of Eagle Creek Trek.
Wahclella Falls:
Next day hiked a bit past Tunnel Falls on Eagle Creek. Excellent. Spent most of the day here.
Hiked a bit on Historic Columbia River Highway (DavidK42 would love this) to Tooth Rock.. then
drove and hiked a bit more after that and saw a number of falls along the Historic highway.
Tunnel Falls:
The most famous one was, well, it was nice. Throngs of people, even in October. I'd hate to see it in
high times. Since it's right on the highway, it's gotta be ca-ra-zie. Wifie didn't want to hike to top
so we just went to the bridge and called it a day.
Next day wanted to go to Vista House. Came across one of the more interesting falls. Actually we thought it
was nicer than Multnomah. We'd had enough waterfalls by then... but still ended up checking it out along
with Bridal Veil.
Latourell Falls:
The highway was closed on both sides of Vista House... so we only got this close:
Chanticleer Point:
From here it was suppose to be on to Crater Lake to camp for the night. We spent too much time visiting a
couple of wineries and putzing around so we nixed Crater (we had been there before) and instead decided to
spend the night at Grants Pass and visit Oregon Cave NM.
Oregon Caves NM - Paradise Lost:
Oregon Caves was definitely worth visiting. Lots of great features with a really nice tour (required).
From there we drove home down 101 visiting Lady Bird (I guess I got suckered into this one). Didn't see any
Lady Birds.
Redwoods NP:
We did go to Washington twice (Walking Man Brewery has yummy pizza)(eat your heart out Curry) but decided to
not go to Mt. Saint Helens. We also skipped the Oregon Coast. Mainly because, well, we live in the Bay
Area and have been all up and down California Coast.
A nice trip. But as I constantly tell the wife ... "Yosemite is Better".
Have fun
