Having been rained out of the rest of our honeymoon, Sarah and I decided to spend our last night at Sisters Motor Lodge in the town of Sisters. Our original final destination would have been Riverside Campground—just up Highway 20 from Sisters. However, we’d heard that the rainstorm that had rained us out of Wildcat was actually snow up in the Cascades. Turns out, we made the right decision. When we went over the Cascades the next day, snow fell from the sky.
The Sisters Motor Lodge was great. Sarah and I researched places to stay in Sisters from a McDonald’s hotspot in Prineville. (We had brought a laptop for just such an eventuality.) She called ahead to verify the price—it was only $118 for the two of us. She also made sure that we’d be able to pay for the room with cash since we live in a cash-only household.
The lady at the Sisters Motor Lodge was pretty awesome and told us it was fine to pay with cash. She owned the place herself, and the inconvenience of setting up a cash payment on her system would be hers alone.
So once we verified the price and availability of a room and the ability to pay for it with cash, we headed off from Prineville and Wildcat Campground to Sisters. We arrived around dinner time, unloaded the bare necessities from the truck into our hotel room and headed out for dinner.
There are a ton of cool places for dinner in Sisters, and we settled on a fairly inexpensive diner for some burgers. I don’t remember the name of the diner, but it was pretty good. We didn’t get much time to explore Sisters, but it’s a pretty cool looking town. It’s got this whole western theme, and many of the buildings look like buildings straight out of the Old West. There’s even a cool looking sculpture in the middle of town of a rearing mustang.
After dinner we headed back to our room. The rooms at the Sisters are all themed. Our room sported a Native American theme—from a painting of a Native American on the wall next to the door to an authentic Native American tapestry hung on the wall behind the bed. The room also had a journal of entries written by past guests. I added an entry about our stay—including a mention of our being rained out of Wildcat Campground.
We left Sisters Motor Lodge with one agreement—we needed to get ourselves a king size bed!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Honeymoon Day 3: Steins Pillar Trail
There are a ton of hiking trails near Wildcat Campground, and we meant to check them all out, but we ended up only getting one of them in: Steins Pillar trail. Steins Pillar is an awesome sight that you can see from the road to Wildcat Campground. It’s a huge pillar of stone rising from the ground. The pillar is the tube of what was once a volcano that used to sit there. When travelling to Wildcat Campground, you can check out Steins Pillar one of two ways: you can take the winding road up to the hiking trail, or you can continue on for just a bit more to look at it from the view point. I forgot to document the information at the viewpoint, but apparently Steins is a misspelling of the last name of the man who discovered the pillar.
The trail itself is a 4-mile hike round trip—although we only managed about 3 of it. It starts by going uphill pretty steep until reaching the top of a rise. There’s a beautiful view of the surrounding area, in addition to a few of the Cascades peaking over the horizon. When we got to the top of the rise, I shouted in success that I was King of
the Mountain. Alas, that was only the beginning of our little adventure.
What followed was a series of switchbacks that led us from hilltop to hilltop—with no sign of the pillar in sight. We had no idea how long it would take us, but we kept at it—promising each other that if there was no sign of the pillar, we’d head back.
We finally reached a part of the hike where the trail headed sharply downhill. We briefly considered heading back at this point. We had no idea how much longer it would take. However, we stubbornly decided to stick with it for a few minutes more.
We headed down the hillside, and as we rounded the corner, we made the most delightful discovery of the whole hike. It wasn’t Stein’s Pillar; it was a signpost. Up until this point, the only signage we had seen was the signpost at the head of the trail—denoting the trail’s name and number. This sign, however, directed us to the left—to the Stein’s Pillar viewpoint. The trail also continued forward towards Stein’s Pillar itself.
We headed to the viewpoint, and the hike was totally worth the view. We could see Stein’s Pillar from behind—a totally different view than the one from the road below. Sarah and I stopped for a short
break to rest, rehydrate, and refuel our bodies. We took several pictures, including an elk print that Sarah discovered.
We debated whether or not to continue the rest of the way to Stein’s Pillar, but decided in the end to call this a win and head back to camp. The hike back up the hill towards the switchbacks was rough, and there were times I didn’t think I’d make it, but we managed to walk the long trek back to the car. From there, we drove back to Wildcat Campground.
The trail itself is a 4-mile hike round trip—although we only managed about 3 of it. It starts by going uphill pretty steep until reaching the top of a rise. There’s a beautiful view of the surrounding area, in addition to a few of the Cascades peaking over the horizon. When we got to the top of the rise, I shouted in success that I was King of
the Mountain. Alas, that was only the beginning of our little adventure.
What followed was a series of switchbacks that led us from hilltop to hilltop—with no sign of the pillar in sight. We had no idea how long it would take us, but we kept at it—promising each other that if there was no sign of the pillar, we’d head back.
We finally reached a part of the hike where the trail headed sharply downhill. We briefly considered heading back at this point. We had no idea how much longer it would take. However, we stubbornly decided to stick with it for a few minutes more.
We headed down the hillside, and as we rounded the corner, we made the most delightful discovery of the whole hike. It wasn’t Stein’s Pillar; it was a signpost. Up until this point, the only signage we had seen was the signpost at the head of the trail—denoting the trail’s name and number. This sign, however, directed us to the left—to the Stein’s Pillar viewpoint. The trail also continued forward towards Stein’s Pillar itself.
We headed to the viewpoint, and the hike was totally worth the view. We could see Stein’s Pillar from behind—a totally different view than the one from the road below. Sarah and I stopped for a short
break to rest, rehydrate, and refuel our bodies. We took several pictures, including an elk print that Sarah discovered.
We debated whether or not to continue the rest of the way to Stein’s Pillar, but decided in the end to call this a win and head back to camp. The hike back up the hill towards the switchbacks was rough, and there were times I didn’t think I’d make it, but we managed to walk the long trek back to the car. From there, we drove back to Wildcat Campground.
Honeymoon Days 3 & 4: Wildcat Campground
We left the High Desert Museum in a hurry on the second full day of our honeymoon. Wildcat Campground in Ochoco National Forest—our next destination—was over 60 miles away, and we still needed to restock our supplies in Bend.
We left Bend via Powell Butte Highway, passing through the community of Powell Butte on our way to Prineville. By avoiding Highway 97, we got a chance to view the sights of rural Oregon. It was a nice change of pace from the usual scenery of the major highways, and I highly recommend the drive.
Going through Prineville, we saw a historic looking building that turned out to be the town’s courthouse. We admired the building so much, we came back through the next day to take pictures.
We switched highways in Prineville and headed down Highway 26 towards John Day. Just past Ochoco Lake is a road heading to Mill Creek Wildness in Ochoco National Forest—and our destination there: Wildcat Campground.
Due to delays in Bend—and the pressure to make sure we made it to Wildcat Campground before the sun went down—we didn’t have enough time to pick up all the supplies we needed. Therefore, we set up the tent and headed back into town. Prineville didn’t have a Walmart like we were looking for, so we ended up having to drive all the way to Redmond for our supplies. However, we did get treated to the sight of a really cool rainbow in the Walmart parking lot. It had been a double rainbow, but by the time I was able to take a shot of it, one of them had disappeared.
By the time we got back to Wildcat Campground, it was dark, so we retired to the tent and relaxed the rest of the night. We awoke the next morning to a beautiful day, and actually had the time and energy to cook breakfast for the first time our whole trip. Sarah cooked, while I set our places at the table. Each campsite at Wildcat Campground—like many campsites like it—provide a picnic table and a fire pit. We didn’t use the fire pit that morning for breakfast—using instead a propane stove we borrowed from my mom.
After breakfast, I cleaned dishes—since Sarah cooked. We chose a campsite close to the water pump, so we wouldn’t have to walk far. The water pump at Wildcat Campground is pretty cool. It’s one of those old-style hand pump that you have to prime before the water comes out. Sarah managed to get off a shot of my filling up our water bottles—embarassingly catching me missing the water bottle and hitting the ground instead!
We took advantage of the gorgeous day to do some hiking. Neither of us had hiked anywhere in recent memory, so we knew it would be a lot of work. We packed up plenty of food and water and headed out in the car to our destination: Steins Pillar Trail.
The hike had drained so much of our energy that day that we cancelled a drive we had planned for later that day along the road past Wildcat Campground. So we rested the rest of the day and had dinner. We tried to make a fire to roast marshmallows and make s’mores, but had the worst luck starting a fire. I managed to roast a few marshmallows before the fire died on us, and we decided to just spend some time together before we headed to bed.
We had planned to hike to Twin Pillars in Mill Creek Wilderness the next day, but the weather had other plans. I woke at 5 am to a call of nature. As I walked to the rest rooms, I noticed that it was starting to sprinkle. I called it a blessing that I woke before it had started raining, and packed all our gear left outside into the truck.
I then headed back into the tent and went back to sleep, waking up a few hours later to the sound of rain beating down on the tent. I noticed that the edges of the tent on the floor were dampish, but thought nothing of it. It was only condensation, right? Not wanting to wake Sarah up, but also not wanting to sit outside in the rain, I took a book into the truck and starting reading. I stayed there reading until I noticed that I was getting water dripped on me. Turns out, my step dad’s truck that we had borrowed for the honeymoon leaked in the upper corners of the windshield. I wiped up the excess water with a rag and continued reading.
I was there reading until Sarah finally came to the truck a few hours later. She had woken up to discover that the floor of the tent had started to flood from all the rain. My pillows were soaked, and the sleeping bags were also quickly soaking up the water as well. We rushed into action at this point. Fortunately we had bought a large box of trash bags to take with us, and we started loading things from the tent. Anything already packed up, went right into the back of the truck. Everything wet also went into bags—we wanted to take them into Prineville and find a laundromat to dry them off. We also put everything still dry into bags and left them in the center of the tent—which was still dry.
So we headed to Prineville to find a laundromat. However, now the real fun began. Remember that leaking problem I mentioned earlier? Well it turns out that it had let so much moisture in the cab of the truck that the defrost had trouble keeping the windshield clear. As we drove the truck into town, we constantly had to rewipe the condensation off the windshield to see the road. We finally figured out—after I was able to get signal on one of our cell phones and called my step dad—that if we rolled down the windows, it would help the defrost be able to keep the windshield clear.
However, the drive back to town brought up an interesting question: what were we going to do if it didn’t stop raining by the end of the day? We obviously couldn’t sleep in the tent if it was raining and leaked. The inevitable answer to that question was another question: how much money did we have left? We did a quick tally of our remaining finances and decided that if we came home a day early, we could use the remaining money to stay at a motel or bed and breakfast. After discussing the merits and flaws of that decision, we both came to the conclusion that it would be best.
So after drying our pillows and sleeping bags, we headed back to camp and packed up the tent. The ground where the tent laid was still dry, and I took a picture of it to show just how wet we’d gotten. Once the camp was all packed up, we headed back on the road and towards what would be our last destination of our honeymoon: Sisters.
We left Bend via Powell Butte Highway, passing through the community of Powell Butte on our way to Prineville. By avoiding Highway 97, we got a chance to view the sights of rural Oregon. It was a nice change of pace from the usual scenery of the major highways, and I highly recommend the drive.
Going through Prineville, we saw a historic looking building that turned out to be the town’s courthouse. We admired the building so much, we came back through the next day to take pictures.
We switched highways in Prineville and headed down Highway 26 towards John Day. Just past Ochoco Lake is a road heading to Mill Creek Wildness in Ochoco National Forest—and our destination there: Wildcat Campground.
Due to delays in Bend—and the pressure to make sure we made it to Wildcat Campground before the sun went down—we didn’t have enough time to pick up all the supplies we needed. Therefore, we set up the tent and headed back into town. Prineville didn’t have a Walmart like we were looking for, so we ended up having to drive all the way to Redmond for our supplies. However, we did get treated to the sight of a really cool rainbow in the Walmart parking lot. It had been a double rainbow, but by the time I was able to take a shot of it, one of them had disappeared.
By the time we got back to Wildcat Campground, it was dark, so we retired to the tent and relaxed the rest of the night. We awoke the next morning to a beautiful day, and actually had the time and energy to cook breakfast for the first time our whole trip. Sarah cooked, while I set our places at the table. Each campsite at Wildcat Campground—like many campsites like it—provide a picnic table and a fire pit. We didn’t use the fire pit that morning for breakfast—using instead a propane stove we borrowed from my mom.
After breakfast, I cleaned dishes—since Sarah cooked. We chose a campsite close to the water pump, so we wouldn’t have to walk far. The water pump at Wildcat Campground is pretty cool. It’s one of those old-style hand pump that you have to prime before the water comes out. Sarah managed to get off a shot of my filling up our water bottles—embarassingly catching me missing the water bottle and hitting the ground instead!
We took advantage of the gorgeous day to do some hiking. Neither of us had hiked anywhere in recent memory, so we knew it would be a lot of work. We packed up plenty of food and water and headed out in the car to our destination: Steins Pillar Trail.
The hike had drained so much of our energy that day that we cancelled a drive we had planned for later that day along the road past Wildcat Campground. So we rested the rest of the day and had dinner. We tried to make a fire to roast marshmallows and make s’mores, but had the worst luck starting a fire. I managed to roast a few marshmallows before the fire died on us, and we decided to just spend some time together before we headed to bed.
We had planned to hike to Twin Pillars in Mill Creek Wilderness the next day, but the weather had other plans. I woke at 5 am to a call of nature. As I walked to the rest rooms, I noticed that it was starting to sprinkle. I called it a blessing that I woke before it had started raining, and packed all our gear left outside into the truck.
I then headed back into the tent and went back to sleep, waking up a few hours later to the sound of rain beating down on the tent. I noticed that the edges of the tent on the floor were dampish, but thought nothing of it. It was only condensation, right? Not wanting to wake Sarah up, but also not wanting to sit outside in the rain, I took a book into the truck and starting reading. I stayed there reading until I noticed that I was getting water dripped on me. Turns out, my step dad’s truck that we had borrowed for the honeymoon leaked in the upper corners of the windshield. I wiped up the excess water with a rag and continued reading.
I was there reading until Sarah finally came to the truck a few hours later. She had woken up to discover that the floor of the tent had started to flood from all the rain. My pillows were soaked, and the sleeping bags were also quickly soaking up the water as well. We rushed into action at this point. Fortunately we had bought a large box of trash bags to take with us, and we started loading things from the tent. Anything already packed up, went right into the back of the truck. Everything wet also went into bags—we wanted to take them into Prineville and find a laundromat to dry them off. We also put everything still dry into bags and left them in the center of the tent—which was still dry.
So we headed to Prineville to find a laundromat. However, now the real fun began. Remember that leaking problem I mentioned earlier? Well it turns out that it had let so much moisture in the cab of the truck that the defrost had trouble keeping the windshield clear. As we drove the truck into town, we constantly had to rewipe the condensation off the windshield to see the road. We finally figured out—after I was able to get signal on one of our cell phones and called my step dad—that if we rolled down the windows, it would help the defrost be able to keep the windshield clear.
However, the drive back to town brought up an interesting question: what were we going to do if it didn’t stop raining by the end of the day? We obviously couldn’t sleep in the tent if it was raining and leaked. The inevitable answer to that question was another question: how much money did we have left? We did a quick tally of our remaining finances and decided that if we came home a day early, we could use the remaining money to stay at a motel or bed and breakfast. After discussing the merits and flaws of that decision, we both came to the conclusion that it would be best.
So after drying our pillows and sleeping bags, we headed back to camp and packed up the tent. The ground where the tent laid was still dry, and I took a picture of it to show just how wet we’d gotten. Once the camp was all packed up, we headed back on the road and towards what would be our last destination of our honeymoon: Sisters.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Honeymoon, Day 2: High Desert Museum
On our way from Prairie Campground to the third campground on our honeymoon itinerary, Wildcat, we stopped at the High Desert Museum 7.5 miles south of Bend. A huge sign north of La Pine announced its presence, and both Sarah and I were interested in checking it out.
We took the road off Highway 97 leading to the High Desert Museum to be greeted by the sight of a huge teepee. Following the road further, a large wagon came into view. It turns out, according to the sign, that this wagon is the last one to travel the Oregon Trail. Roy J. Brabham created a replica of a wagon in 1959 and used it to follow the same path that his ancestors took to come to Oregon.
Outside the museum, there was wildlife aplenty—from chipmunks begging for food to fish swimming the creek leading into the wildlife preserves within the museum itself. In addition, several sculptures of wildlife adorn the paths leading to the entrance of the museum from the parking lot.
The price for the museum was quite spendy—$15 a piece—but the ticket price lasts all day. The man at the front desk told us all we had to do was show our receipt to prove we’d already paid.
So we paid the $30 to get in, although we didn’t have much time to visit the entire museum. I stopped at the Birds of Prey wing of the museum, where I saw my first ever bald eagle. In addition, I watched a presentation given by one of the employees of the High Desert Museum about one of its inhabitants—a Great Horned Owl. I was not able to retain much of the information shared in the presentation, as I spent most of my time trying to get a decent shot of the owl.
Sarah and I checked out other parts of the museum together. We passed by a sleeping bobcat and a lynx. The lynx’s story was sad. He had been found in the wild declawed with his canine
teeth removed. They believe that someone had taken him in as a pet, and then got bored with him and left him in the wild to die. Fortunately, the High Desert Museum adopted him or that would have been his fate, being unable to defend himself.
Finally we visited the Spirit of the West wing of the museum. They displayed all sorts of old artifacts from the Old West—from Native American to settlers, gold mines to frontier towns. They also had a volcano exhibit, detailing a ton of information about volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, we were not able to take in all the sights we wanted—we had a long drive to Wildcat and needed to stop in Bend to restock on supplies. However, we definitely want to go back again someday soon.
We took the road off Highway 97 leading to the High Desert Museum to be greeted by the sight of a huge teepee. Following the road further, a large wagon came into view. It turns out, according to the sign, that this wagon is the last one to travel the Oregon Trail. Roy J. Brabham created a replica of a wagon in 1959 and used it to follow the same path that his ancestors took to come to Oregon.
Outside the museum, there was wildlife aplenty—from chipmunks begging for food to fish swimming the creek leading into the wildlife preserves within the museum itself. In addition, several sculptures of wildlife adorn the paths leading to the entrance of the museum from the parking lot.
The price for the museum was quite spendy—$15 a piece—but the ticket price lasts all day. The man at the front desk told us all we had to do was show our receipt to prove we’d already paid.
So we paid the $30 to get in, although we didn’t have much time to visit the entire museum. I stopped at the Birds of Prey wing of the museum, where I saw my first ever bald eagle. In addition, I watched a presentation given by one of the employees of the High Desert Museum about one of its inhabitants—a Great Horned Owl. I was not able to retain much of the information shared in the presentation, as I spent most of my time trying to get a decent shot of the owl.
Sarah and I checked out other parts of the museum together. We passed by a sleeping bobcat and a lynx. The lynx’s story was sad. He had been found in the wild declawed with his canine
teeth removed. They believe that someone had taken him in as a pet, and then got bored with him and left him in the wild to die. Fortunately, the High Desert Museum adopted him or that would have been his fate, being unable to defend himself.
Finally we visited the Spirit of the West wing of the museum. They displayed all sorts of old artifacts from the Old West—from Native American to settlers, gold mines to frontier towns. They also had a volcano exhibit, detailing a ton of information about volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, we were not able to take in all the sights we wanted—we had a long drive to Wildcat and needed to stop in Bend to restock on supplies. However, we definitely want to go back again someday soon.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Honeymoon, Day 2: Prairie Campground and Newberry National Volcanic Monument
We had planned to stay at East Lake Campground in Newberry National Volcanic Monument for the second and third nights of our honeymoon. However, when we arrived there we discovered that Newberry was covered in three feet of snow, and the campgrounds were closed. Fortunately, we had chosen an alternate destination for our stay: Prairie Campground—just down the road from Newberry National Volcanic Monument. We decided to stay there for only one night and the head out to our next destination and stay an extra night.
Prairie Campground was pretty ordinary with few sights. A creek ran through just south of the campground and across the highway over to its neighbor campground Ogden—a group campground I used to frequent growing up with my family. My grandfather used to work for US West (now Qwest and soon to be Century Link) and they sponsored a group camping event for current and former employees called Pioneering in the Pines. (It’s been a great many years since I’ve attended these events, and from my understanding, they’ve moved the event to a new location.) The only picture I have of Prairie I took was of our campsite as we were about to leave.
As for amenities, I was not very impressed. They provided water that was within easy access of our campsite. However, while I was there, I found no place to dispose of wastewater. (I ended up dumping it into the pit toilet.) In addition, the toilet seats in the pit toilets were made of metal, and they were cold!
We set up camp as soon as we arrived, and as we started to get ready to prepare diner, we realized that we has forgotten to pack a skillet to cook our steaks in! Luckily for us, La Pine was a short drive away. We stopped at Ray’s grocery store, but they did not have a skillet to sell. However, the lady at the deli counter was a saint and recommended Shop Smart to us. We managed to find a skillet there—for a ridiculous price—that saved us from having to drive all the way to Bend.
After we cooked dinner on a propane stove we borrowed from my mother, we decided to make a fire for warmth and roasting marshmallows. However the fire gods were not with us that day and starting our fire turned out to be quite a chore. After several attempts to start one, we finally managed to get enough fire to roast a few marshmallows for s’mores.
Prairie was much colder than Blue Pool! Fortunately, I had learned my lesson from the night before, and wore my sweatshirt. Plus, Sarah and I slept under three blankets, which made it quite cozy until we woke in the morning—at around 5 or 6 am. We were too cold to build a fire to make breakfast, so we both decided to just head into La Pine for McDonalds. Afterwards we stopped at Gordy’s Truck Stop to take showers. We had stopped at the truck stop the previous night for dinner. It was delicious! The showers were awesome, too, and pretty affordable at $8 a piece.
We returned to Prairie to pack up camp, and head to Newberry for some sights before moving on to Bend. Newberry National Volcanic Monument is a park inside the caldera of a volcano. There are two lakes there—Paulina and East Lakes—with a total of nine boat launches between them. Fishing is allowed and you can catch two kinds of trout—brown and rainbow—as well as two kinds of salmon—kokanee and Atlantic. There are five campgrounds: Cinder Hill, East Lake, Hot Springs, Little Crater, and Pauline Lake—in addition to the resort at Pauline Lake. In addition there are numerous hiking trails leading all over the caldera giving you plenty to explore.
Since there was snow covering most of the mountain, the only open road led to Paulina Lake Resort—which has access to Paulina Lake itself. We spotted several boats on the lake, including a persistent fisherman and his dog. It was so cold that portions of the lake were even frozen. Even though we didn’t get to see many of the sites, we definitely plan to give Newberry another visit!
Prairie Campground was pretty ordinary with few sights. A creek ran through just south of the campground and across the highway over to its neighbor campground Ogden—a group campground I used to frequent growing up with my family. My grandfather used to work for US West (now Qwest and soon to be Century Link) and they sponsored a group camping event for current and former employees called Pioneering in the Pines. (It’s been a great many years since I’ve attended these events, and from my understanding, they’ve moved the event to a new location.) The only picture I have of Prairie I took was of our campsite as we were about to leave.
As for amenities, I was not very impressed. They provided water that was within easy access of our campsite. However, while I was there, I found no place to dispose of wastewater. (I ended up dumping it into the pit toilet.) In addition, the toilet seats in the pit toilets were made of metal, and they were cold!
We set up camp as soon as we arrived, and as we started to get ready to prepare diner, we realized that we has forgotten to pack a skillet to cook our steaks in! Luckily for us, La Pine was a short drive away. We stopped at Ray’s grocery store, but they did not have a skillet to sell. However, the lady at the deli counter was a saint and recommended Shop Smart to us. We managed to find a skillet there—for a ridiculous price—that saved us from having to drive all the way to Bend.
After we cooked dinner on a propane stove we borrowed from my mother, we decided to make a fire for warmth and roasting marshmallows. However the fire gods were not with us that day and starting our fire turned out to be quite a chore. After several attempts to start one, we finally managed to get enough fire to roast a few marshmallows for s’mores.
Prairie was much colder than Blue Pool! Fortunately, I had learned my lesson from the night before, and wore my sweatshirt. Plus, Sarah and I slept under three blankets, which made it quite cozy until we woke in the morning—at around 5 or 6 am. We were too cold to build a fire to make breakfast, so we both decided to just head into La Pine for McDonalds. Afterwards we stopped at Gordy’s Truck Stop to take showers. We had stopped at the truck stop the previous night for dinner. It was delicious! The showers were awesome, too, and pretty affordable at $8 a piece.
We returned to Prairie to pack up camp, and head to Newberry for some sights before moving on to Bend. Newberry National Volcanic Monument is a park inside the caldera of a volcano. There are two lakes there—Paulina and East Lakes—with a total of nine boat launches between them. Fishing is allowed and you can catch two kinds of trout—brown and rainbow—as well as two kinds of salmon—kokanee and Atlantic. There are five campgrounds: Cinder Hill, East Lake, Hot Springs, Little Crater, and Pauline Lake—in addition to the resort at Pauline Lake. In addition there are numerous hiking trails leading all over the caldera giving you plenty to explore.
Since there was snow covering most of the mountain, the only open road led to Paulina Lake Resort—which has access to Paulina Lake itself. We spotted several boats on the lake, including a persistent fisherman and his dog. It was so cold that portions of the lake were even frozen. Even though we didn’t get to see many of the sites, we definitely plan to give Newberry another visit!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Honeymoon, Day 1: Blue Pool Campground
My wife Sarah and I love the outdoors: camping, hiking, and photographing wild and natural settings. So when we got married last month, it wasn’t a hard decision to spend our honeymoon out tent camping. We left for 6 days and visited 3 campsites. We also stopped at a National Monument, visited a museum, and hiked a 3 mile trail. We took a lot of pictures, and decided to share our wonderful discoveries with others.
On the first night of our honeymoon, we stayed at Blue Pool Campground off Hwy 58, just outside of Oakridge. This campsite was a wonderful surprise. We had scoped it out a few weeks before the wedding—wanting to find a place close by to stop at for the first night of our honeymoon. We chose our preferred campsite at that time, number 7—a private little site off the beaten path from all the others and right next to Salt Creek.
We were so tired after the wedding that we pretty much set up our tent and crashed for the night. However, I woke early the next morning and walked around the campsite, and made a wonderful discovery. Following a path from our site, I discovered a beautiful little falls flowing down from the hills south of the campground into Salt Creek. When Sarah woke, I took her down there to show it off.
The only complaint I had about the campsite was the temperature. At an elevation of 1900 ft in late May, it was cold! We slept on top of 2 sleeping bags and covered up with one blanket. Sarah was smarter than I, and wore a sweatshirt to bed and was unaffected by the weather. However, by about 4 or 5 AM, I was freezing. This campsite is likely a better one to visit in the height of summer.
On the first night of our honeymoon, we stayed at Blue Pool Campground off Hwy 58, just outside of Oakridge. This campsite was a wonderful surprise. We had scoped it out a few weeks before the wedding—wanting to find a place close by to stop at for the first night of our honeymoon. We chose our preferred campsite at that time, number 7—a private little site off the beaten path from all the others and right next to Salt Creek.
We were so tired after the wedding that we pretty much set up our tent and crashed for the night. However, I woke early the next morning and walked around the campsite, and made a wonderful discovery. Following a path from our site, I discovered a beautiful little falls flowing down from the hills south of the campground into Salt Creek. When Sarah woke, I took her down there to show it off.
The only complaint I had about the campsite was the temperature. At an elevation of 1900 ft in late May, it was cold! We slept on top of 2 sleeping bags and covered up with one blanket. Sarah was smarter than I, and wore a sweatshirt to bed and was unaffected by the weather. However, by about 4 or 5 AM, I was freezing. This campsite is likely a better one to visit in the height of summer.
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