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 Metolius River banks in Lower Bridge Campground next to Forest Service Bridge 99. Bridge 99 Brewery...
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. We 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 today's books.
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 and, in the...
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.
We found a gem for our first stop of this trip. A very scenic & well cared for BLM campground located near both the Steens Mountain & Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
"A quick drive up the coast brought us to this campground we last visited during fall of 2013. It looks like this will a good base for exploring the area before heading home."
"Only an 88-mile drive, but it seemed much longer because of the narrow winding roads. But the reward at the end made it well worth it. Now it's time to explore the area."
We had a short drive up the coast to Beverly Beach. This massive State Park campground is tucked in a dense forest. There's easy beach access via a path under the Hwy 101 bridge.
Top Photo: Stairs to the beach!
"Oh boy, back in our coach and at one of our favorite destinations: the Oregon Coast in the fall. The first stop is Tillicum Beach Campground."
We love when friends come to town for a visit and have been fortunate to have so many in our first year. It seems that we never get tired of acting as tour guides showing off our new home base. There is never a shortage of things to do or brewpubs to visit with so many festivals and outdoor activiti...
Top Photo: Brokern Top peaking through.
Kayaking Sparks Lake
For several years we wanted to kayak Sparks Lake but arrived in the Bend area in late summer, and by then, the lake was too low. Now based in the area we have to opportunity for an earlier start this year. So finally, we got to s...
In keeping with our "river" theme on this mini road trip, we drove 160 crazy Memorial Day miles to get where the Deschutes River empties into the Columbia River. Once again, the RV gods were good to us as we scored a site backing up to the Deschutes.
"We went looking for a small campground to ride out the Memorial Day weekend, and Red Bridge was just that campground."
"This is a jewel of a campground that sits on the Snake River as it flows through Hell's Canyon & is one of five campgrounds in that section of the river managed by Idaho Power."
Quiet little campground tucked away on the North Fork of the Malheur River.
Things have been pretty quiet on this website lately. So, are we MIA? Well, sort of, and then, maybe we've been quite busy.
Top photo: Old Mill District on the Deschutes River.
"Home again... Chilling in Bend. Of all the places we've been, it always feels like coming home when we pull into Bend!"
Update: This post was first published on August 15th, when we arrived in Bend for our summer visit. We returned on November 1st for the winter.
