Alaska 2011: 8/6 - 8/12 Crooked River Ranch to Crater Lake National Park

Sunday, August 14, 2011

8/6 - 8/12 Crooked River Ranch to Crater Lake National Park - Oregon

We checked into Crooked River Ranch RV Park, near Terrebonne, OR and stayed for three nights. The park is very nice and located on a deep gorge cut by the Crooked River. Lunch one day at the Golf Club grill next door. We took a road trip one day to Sisters, OR and a scenic drive on a road that was really too narrow for us, but we did the 40 miles enjoying every mile. This route took us through a volcano flow and McKenzie Pass at 5000 ft where the scenery of the lava flow and distant mountains was very scenic.

Sisters mountains

lava flow at Mckenzie pass

View of our "home" from lava trail

Alpaca's grazing at local Alpaca Farm

Here I am working on the wire connections for the "New Mirror"
Remember the one that was broken back in May? - I finally replaced it with a new one!

Off we go to La Pine State Park, just a few miles South of Crooked River Ranch. This is a very nice park - as all of the Oregon State Parks have been. We hiked each day and enjoyed the scenery and the wonderful weather; about 80 degrees each day and down to about 40 degrees at night.

One day we hiked a 3 1/2 mile loop to the "Big Tree" - Oregon's biggest Ponderosa Pine in the State

Big Tree - Largest Ponderosa Pine in Oregon

Another hike was to the La Pine park Falls, a 4 1/4 mile loop that took us about three hours, a bottle of water each, and 3 ounces of trail mix.

La Pine Falls

Crater Lake National Park in Oregon was our next destination. Crater Lake is the deepest in the U.S. at 1,943 ft. deep and a surface altitude of 6,173 ft. The water color is a deep blue, the prettiest I've ever seen. We did not get close to the water as the road to the only trail leading to the shore, was closed for repair the two days we were there. We did take a hike on the Annie Creek Trail, named after the first woman to see Crater Lake (I assume not counting native american's)