Above Photo: A view from the remaining upper pond at Bates State Park. The lower pond was filled in when the lumber mill was demolished.
Wishing all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. We continue to enjoy life in Bend — there’s always something going on. And of course, we still like hitting the road when we can. - Rob't & Diana
This State Park located on the John Day River has been on our bucket list for some time. This former working ranch is the second largest & newest park the in Oregon Park system. (note: newest park that offers camping).
Top Pic: Forest Service Bridge 99 over the Metolius River. Fishing upstream of this bridge is fly fishing only — downstream from the bridge is fly fishing & lures.
We found a cool campsite on the banks of the Metolius River in Lower Bridge Campground next to Forest Service Bridge 99. Bridge 99 Br...
To conclude Labor Day weekend, we headed over to Dry River Canyon (about 16 miles east of Bend) for an afternoon hike. It’s located just outside the boundary of Oregon Badlands Wilderness. The canyon is closed to visitors from Feb 1st to Aug 31st to protect nesting birds of prey. It was an enjoyable...
We took a drive up to Three Creeks Lake, Just north of Sisters, to check out the campgrounds today. Happened upon the Tam McArthur Rim trail and decided to take a hike. It was a great trail with lots of eye candy.
Steelhead Falls which is included in the Deschutes Canyon-Steelhead Falls Wilderness Study Area, was on the books for today.
The Old McKenzie Highway opened on Monday after the Milli/ Separation fires & winter closure. This sounded like a good excuse for a little auto touring. It was interesting to see the fire areas as they backed up to the lava flows. We decided to drive the whole loop around Mt Washington & in the proc...
We traveled 1,802 miles over a period of almost seven weeks (it turns out that we were only one day short of seven). During this period, we had thirteen stopovers.
Top Pic: Blooming Lilacs throughout the campground.
Bonus stop. One more night on the road before returning to Bend. We swung a tad out of our way so we could check out the area & lakes along hwy 31 on the way home.
Top Pic: Entrance to Golden Dome cave. Some of the caves (lava tubes) have steps at the entrance, but most don't.
This place has been on our bucket list for some time & we’re glad that we finally arrived. I think I see some lava tube/cave exploring on the horizon.
When ”plan A” didn’t work out, we moved on to ”plan B”. Needless to say, that didn’t play out either. Down the road we found a great dispersed site at Rocky Point West - BLM on Eagle Lake. ”Plan C” rules!
