Left Salem for Sunriver. Day one of our long weekend camping trip to southern Oregon. I had wanted to get as far as Sunriver so that we'd be that much closer to Hart Mountain which was our ultimate destination. We got a nice Air BnB and Dohnele connected with some friends for drinks while the kids and me got takeout and sat in the hot tub.
The next day, we headed south and got to Lakeview where we bought camping groceries. As luck would have it, Safeway was grilling ribs so we picked up a couple racks of ribs and some other stuff and headed east to Hart Mountain. Unfortunately, the place was full to the brim. The wildfire a couple years ago had forced the Fish and Wildlife Service to close much of the campground and the rest of it was fully occupied. So I decided to retreat to the Fremont-Winema National Forest and just go find something random.
We backtracked to a logging road I'd never been up before and drove up it and found a great camping spot near Stairstep Spring. Here, I started setting up tents, unpacking sleeping bags, and of course, eating ribs. The mosquitos were bad, but Dohnele brought bug spray. Anyway, after dinner we went on a walk and ended up finding a beautiful little spring-fed pond at the head of Walker Creek. Dohnele wanted to camp there instead. So she and the kids picked up the tents and sleeping bags without breaking them down and walked them a quarter mile to the new camping site! And it definitely was a better location. And it was open enough that I figured I could safely build a fire which was perfect for cooking and keeping bugs off. The kids went to sleep kinda early and Dohnele and I stayed by the fire for quite a while. The chorus of frogs was constant and loud almost all night long!
Sleeping was rough. I swear, camping on hard ground gets tougher every trip. Zephyr and I got up and sat by the edge of the pond and waited for everyone else to get up. After breakfast, we went on a drive and ended up on top of a cliff overlooking the Crooked Creek Valley (pics below) and Highway 395. We had lunch here. The bugs followed us. Zephyr found some snow to play in!
We continued our drive, which as it turned out, was really quite beautiful. High mountain meadow (Bull Prairie - pics below), springs, and wetlands. We drove past Emery Spring, Cove Creek, Porcupine Creek, and Mud Creek and took lots of pictures. Zephyr hiked around and did some exploring and got good and muddy.
We finally got headed back towards camp and then Dohnele saw a sign for "Drake Peak" and said "Let's go!" So I turned around and headed back and up. I'd never heard of Drake Peak before and certainly hadn't been up the road before; usually roads to mountain tops are really ugly so I was a bit nervous to try it out, but the road was fine almost all the way to the summit where we got stopped by snow drifts. We hiked from there. Dohnele took right off up the mountain and I walked with the kids up the snow-covered road; we even found a horned toad sunning itself on a rock. It was BRIGHT out and the rocks were white and the snow was white and there wasn't a tree in sight. I had my hoody on, but Dohnele was in a t-shirt and got badly burned. But the view was amazing! 360 degrees! Just beautiful. Anyway, we enjoyed the view from the Fire Lookout for a while and then headed back to camp.
By this time we had run out of bug spray and the bugs back at camp were terrible. I was waiting for the sun to go down so that I could build another fire. But the kids were just zipped up in their tents. And it wasn't fun anymore. I thought about how sore I'd be the next morning after sleeping on the ground again and said "Screw this! Let's go to Lakeview and get a hotel!" After contemplating that for a bit, we packed up and headed down the mountain and got into Lakeview just after sunset. The first hotel was full. The second hotel we stopped at had two rooms left and I took em!
The next day, after hot showers, we headed back towards Sunriver. We stopped in Paisley for a picnic lunch which we enjoyed at a picnic table outside the Forest Service building (and across the street from a playground). It was actually really nice because Zoë got to watch several horses while we ate and relaxed. After a bit, we headed north again and got to Sunriver in time to check in to our Air BnB. Dohnele met up with her friends again and I got takeout with the kids again.
Finally, after all that, we headed home the next morning!
1 comment:
I think I remember you speaking of this trip...lots of exploration, bugs, frogs...but the scenery looks incredible and what an adventure! Always fun to explore..but then a relief to get home.
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