Summer in Oregon

      The majority of my life I have spent in Oregon, but as I'm now almost fully recovered, I've been able to use this summer to discover places close to home that are entirely new to me.

First look at the crater

Crater Lake is said to be one of the top seven most incredible sites in Oregon and I cannot disagree. Just  a couple weeks ago I took my first trip there with my family. It's original name was something like "very blue lake" and rightfully so, when you drive up to the rim and peer over the edge your eyes fall upon a deep, calming blue lake with a small island inside of it.

 The water looks calm and preserved except for an occasional little tour boat floating along. We did a hike called The Watchman which was a nearly 2 mile hike round trip that went uphill over pretty easy terrain to a lookout tower that you couldn't enter but gave a clear birds eye view of the water below. Tyler even spotted a couple deer laying in the shade of some trees down near the waters edge.

little stop on our hike

The food in the cafe is pretty pricey but I guess that's to be expected, the souvenirs are immense, also not a surprise. Besides the crater itself, there are many other sights to see and trails that can be taken. We went along the rim by car and stopped at the pinnacles, some tall jagged spike like rocks where he rest of the cliff has fallen down around them. There are multiple different layers of color visible in the rock as well. For a moment the wind picked up and blew swiftly in our faces and a moment later we could see falling rock and mass amounts of dust all around. We stopped at the pumice sandcastle, if you use your imagination you can see a beautiful sandcastle in an yellowy brown hue resting on the side of the contrastingly dark gray cliff.

made it to the top!

That weekend we stayed in a little cabin on Diamond Lake. Our spot was right next to the lake and we spent the days swimming in the nearly freezing water, going on walks around the lake, my family went horseback-riding, lounging in the hammocks we brought, and laughing at all the cute little prairie dog sort of things that are constantly running around the place. The boys fished multiple times because we'd heard about how good the fishing was meant to be and yet we caught nothing. I think it must be a family curse.

One of our little friends

 The scenery was gorgeous with the distant mountains reflecting on the clear shining gem-like surface.

A few weeks prior, we had a massive family reunion in Sunriver, Oregon. The whole area is tons of nice rental homes surrounded by trees and activities like golf, tennis, shopping, a water park, playgrounds etc. There was never an opportunity or reason to be bored. One afternoon we went white water rafting. At the beginning our guide got Tyler to stand on the front of our boat and we paddled and spun it in circles to see how long he could stay on, after meeting the raft record of 8 second he did a graceful backflip right into the water. A few rapids later, when we got to the big one, the guide said someone could sit in the front and lean out during the rapid. Of course I volunteered and got the best seat for all the action. 

The next day we rented some tubes and went down to the river. We strung them all together with rope and floated down for the next few hours in something of a jumbled mess. For some reason whenever I go float a river, the weather is never ideal. It turned cold and cloudy and we were shivering sitting there and tried paddling to make us arrive quicker.

Ready to begin the float

The little jumble we became

I'm always amazed at how many incredible and fun things I can do close to home that I never knew about or hadn't had the opportunity to see. I think no matter where you are, adventure and new experiences can be found not far from home.