Oregon Coast South of Coos Bay

On Saturday, we drove south to Bandon where wind and waves have sculpted monoliths along the shore into contorted spires. We stopped at viewpoints overlooking the beach, rock monoliths, and rock formations. One was called Face Rock and resembles a face gazing skyward. We walked down stairs to the beach. And for those of you still experiencing temperatures in the upper 90’s, it was windy and in the 60’s – jacket weather for us. We also visited 3 state parks that preserve a beautiful stretch of coast beginning with Sunset Bay State Park. Sunset Bay is almost completely surrounded by sandstone cliffs, and the entrance to the bay is narrow, so the waters are fairly calm and get warm enough for swimming – at least for some. South of Sunset Bay we stopped for a view of Cape Arago Lighthouse before driving on to Shore Acres State Park, once the estate of a local shipping tycoon. The gardens include a formal English garden with lots of dahlias, roses, and other flowers and shrubs, and a Japanese garden with a 100-foot lily pond. Rock walls rise up from the water and are as awesome as those we saw in Bandon. We walked a section of the Oregon Coast Trail here. Then it was on to Cape Arago State Park where we watched seals sunning on the rocks and small islands from Simpson Reef Viewpoint. Click HERE to see more pictures.

Crater Lake to Coos Bay

Another clear and crisp (low 40’s) day began with us heading west toward the Oregon Coast beginning with Coos Bay, 173 miles away. When we reached Coos Bay, we were almost at sea level. When we reached Roseburg on I-5 the temp was 86 degrees. When we crossed the Pacific range and descended into the Coos Bay area the temperature dropped to 74 degrees. So you can see we descended all day – and the roads were really curvy. Along the way we stopped and hiked to a couple of water falls: Watson Falls at 272 feet one of the tallest waterfalls in Southwestern Oregon and Toketee Falls, a double-tiered falls that drops a total of 120 feet over columnar basalt (lava). Click HERE to see more photos.

Crater Lake NP

We drove 115 miles south of Bend to Crater Lake National Park. Our campground is north of the park on Diamond Lake. We left the RV park at 7:15 a.m. in order to obtain tickets for the Crater Lake boat tour. To take the boat tour, it is necessary to hike the steep switchbacked Cleetwood Trail. The trail descends 700 feet over 1.1 miles, all the while offering astounding views of the deep sapphire blue Crater Lake. The boat tour gives a unique perspective of the crater. Not surprisingly, the slog back up the trail to the rim of the crater is quite difficult. The Cleetwood Trail is the only legal access to the shore of the lake as the crater is very steep and dangerous. This adventure took a half day. The remainder of the day we completed the rim drive stopping at the various overlooks, the visitors’ center, and the lodge. It was an amazing day seeing the deep blue water of the lake which is so blue because of its depth and the purity of the water. And surrounding the lake are impressive and varied rock structures – so much beauty here created by the cataclysmic eruption and subsequent implosion of the 12,000 foot Mt. Mazama 7000 years ago which resulted in the caldera that is Crater Lake. And by the way, for those of you dealing with the heat and humidity typical of August in the south, the highs were in the 70’s and the night time temperatures were in the low 40’s. Click HERE to see more pictures of Craer Lake.

Smith Rock SP

On our third day in Bend we drove north about 30 miles to Smith Rock State Park which is north of Redmond. We were very pleased with our decision to visit here because it truly is an outstanding hiking venue. Here the Crooked River snakes around through deep canyon walls in a desert environment. We hiked down into the canyon, across a footbridge, and on a trail that follows the river through the canyon. Along the way we saw several rock climbers and, in fact, Smith Rock SP is a world renown rock climbing venue – truly a beautiful hiking spot. Click HERE to see more pictures of Smith Rock.

Newberry National Volcanic Monument

We spent a pleasant day exploring the Newberry National Volcanic Monument beginning with a drive up Lava Butte, another extinct volcano. We hiked a trail around the top of the cinder cone. Next we visited the 7984 ft. Paulina Peak where we gazed down into the giant Newberry Volcano Caldera which contained two lakes. We could see the giant obsidian lava flow which we visited later in the day. We learned more about the volcano geology from a ranger talk at the peak and then did a short hike. We then descended the rough steep gravel road back to the valley where we visited the shore of East Lake. From there we visited the obsidian flow, a huge mass of lava containing some black glass obsidian. We climbed the stairs and path to walk around on the lava flow. It was quite amazing to see the remains of this volcanic activity from 7000 years ago. We feel that the volcanic geology that we saw in Oregon surpassed that of Hawaii. Click HERE to see more pictures.

Bend Pilot Butte

Our next stop was 20 miles east at Bend, OR, where we visited the summit of Pilot Butte for a sweeping view of the city of Bend and the Deschutes River. Pilot Butte, like many of the conical hills and mountains in this area, is an extinct volcano. From the top, we hiked about a third of the way down and back up. We visited downtown Bend and saw a Chevy car show at the riverside park. We had dinner at an Indian restaurant. On another day we returned downtown for an excellent NY style pizza. Click HERE to see more pictures.

Sisters - McKenzie Pass

After leaving the Country Coach Rally in Albany, OR, we headed east over the Cascade range to Sisters, OR. Sisters is a western style small town that made a convenient location for our day trip over McKenzie Pass. In the truck we followed a forest road that formerly was a wagon road. Very soon we came to a sign saying the road was closed 11 miles ahead due to a rock slide. Fortunately though, we reached the lava flows and Dee Wright Observatory that was built of lava stone by the CCC. We had a good view of several of the Cascade Peaks including the Three Sisters, Mt Jefferson, Mt. Washington, and Black Butte. Due to the rock slide we retraced our path down the east side of the pass and had a picnic lunch at a forest service campground in a stand of Ponderosa pines. Later in the day we visited a couple of waterfalls on the McKenzie River. Click HERE to see more pictures.http://picasaweb.google.com/gharpercomcast/SistersMcKenziePass