What I’m Doing – Exploring the Northwest

Hi Friends,

Jeff and I took a mini 4 day vacation this past week. We just got home last night so today’s blog is going to be a summary of our last few days.

The theme of this vacation was “Explore Oregon”. I love the Northwest and I love to explore new locations. So we decided to combine those into our family vacation. 

Specifically, there were two locations I had never been to that I really wanted to see.

The Painted Hills – Day 1

When I first learned about the Painted Hills in Oregon it was only a few years ago.The pictures I saw made it look absolutely amazing and I wanted a chance to photograph them myself.  I looked it up and realized it was too far for a day trip. Believing it wouldn’t be worth a trip of its own, I put it on the back burner to simmer.  

We were excited about our road trip in our new Jeep. Lucy had a snug place in the back, we had a cooler full of food and we headed out Sunday morning. Our plan was to drive to the Painted Hills, explore and then camp for the first night. 

For some reason I didn’t have a clear understanding of the geography.  The map in my head  had the Painted Hills further south. Because of that I didn’t realize we would be driving near Bend on our way. Our oldest son was in Bend for the weekend about an hour into our drive Jeff asked me to call Josh. It wasn’t until then that I realized how close we would be and we actually ended up having a quick lunch with Josh and Jocelyn in Redmond.

After a great lunch with the kids we headed east and eventually found our way to the Painted Hills. 

The Painted Hills –

are beautiful. We had clear skies which really made the colors pop. Honestly I thought there would be more. That it would be grander. We hiked each of the trails. The longest being just over a mile long. I did enjoy photographing them and they are something to see. But in all honesty we were both a bit underwhelmed. 

Perhaps we felt that way because it was a really long way to drive and we were absolutely in the middle of nowhere.  We did enjoy exploring the area. The rock formations are fascinating and I kept imagining what it would have been like for those who first discovered them.

Time to camp – 

We saw all there was to see. Next on the agenda was to find our camping spot for the night. We drove further into the middle of nowhere. An hour later we rolled into our campground. We were the only people there. Not even a camp host. A note with instructions to leave our $20 in a black box by the men’s restroom and informing us that there was fire ban in the county are all that greeted us. I was devastated!!!  My heart was set on roasting dogs and making S’mores!!! 

We set up camp wondering if anyone would show up. It was really odd to be in the middle of nowhere, completely cut off, no cell phones, no people around. Once we got into our sleeping bags we commented that if we were murdered in the night no one would know what ever happened to us! 

Happily we woke up alive and all was well!

Painted Hills and Bend – Day 2

We packed up and headed further east to explore the Sheep Rock Unit to the John Day Fossil Beds. Honestly, fossils are just not my thing. Sure one or two hold my interest but I get bored quickly. I was mildly interested in the bear-dog creatures that once roamed the area (mostly relieved they are now extinct).  I was also disappointing to learn that fossils doesn’t always mean dinosaurs. The landscape was stunning.

and then there was a horse…

The highlight of the drive was coming around a corner and encountering a horse. The horse seemed to be fairly young and it was clearly spirited.  I quickly came to a stop. He just stared us down. Like he was daring us to come closer. Jeff and I both wondered if he was going to charge us. Then he turned and began galloping down the road. So I followed at a safe distance. He would stop turn around and glare at us. So I would stop again. Eventually he took a turn and headed up a driveway. I hope it was home.

Time to return to civilization

Jeff and I talked about how odd it was to be so completely out of touch and unreachable. Even though it had only been 30 hours or so I couldn’t shake the worry that something had happened and no one could reach us.  Once we rolled back into civilization we were checking our phones to make sure all was well and of course it was. 

We had a beautiful picnic lunch in Bend and then headed up into the mountains to do a few hikes and enjoy the stunning scenery. 

Without a set itinerary we simply drove and stopped when we wanted to. Hiked when we wanted to. Left when we wanted to. It was awesome. 

Honestly, there wasn’t a ton of planning that went into this trip. The only time that was a real problem was this night. We had a reservation to stay in Klamath Falls. Sounds like a lovely place. Certain to have some falls and lovely scenery.  It wasn’t. We were in a horrible hotel, in a horrible part of town. I don’t know how these things happen, well yes I do but I will leave him out of this.

PS – There are NO falls in Klamath Falls.

It had been a very long day we had driven many, many miles and this was not the highlight.

Crater Lake – Day 3

Our next predetermined stop was Crater Lake. While I grew up in the Northwest and I’ve spent most of my life living in the Northwest I had never been to Crater Lake National Park. Originally back when I wanted motivation to train for something https://shellyfryphotography.com/my-everyday/cycling-vancouver-wa-shelly-fry-photography  we talked about biking the rim of the lake.

We didn’t realize that even in July part of the road would still be closed due to snow. It looks like a pretty tough ride anyway.  With 30 some miles to ride, you start at over 6,000 ft and do a lot of climbing! So it sounds good to have the road closure as an excuse. 

The lake was larger than I had imagined it to be. We had an overcast sky but the water was still an amazing blue. They are very restrictive regarding where they allow dogs so any of the really cool hikes were off limits to Lucy. So we enjoyed walking along the rim and driving along the rim. The views are amazing. We stopped and had lunch along the way. Originally we planned another night in a hotel but after our Klamath Falls disaster we decided to find a campsite for the night. 

We love camping –

We found a beautiful spot on the river. The allowed fires and I happily roasted my hot dog and made two delicious S’mores! 

Jeff and I hadn’t tent camped in years. It was my favorite part of this trip. It’s kinda cool to have everything you need with you so that you can just randomly stop somewhere and set up.

Overall, we saw some gorgeous scenery and just loved our time together exploring. Lucy is an excellent traveler and gives two paws up for camping! 

We arrived home with a filthy Jeep and in desperate need of showers but happy and ready to resume our regularly scheduled program.