Day 17: Monday, September 12, 2011
We had a lovely day at Crater Lake today. We overslept, because Joe’s phone (with our alarm on it) ran out of battery during the night. So we were well rested when we finally got up and got going. We could see blue sky and Roxy and I had a nice walk before we pulled out of our campground. Stopped at the village store, and discovered they had showers! That is something that would have been of interest to me.
We spent most of the day going around the Rim Road of Crater Lake. Sure enough, this morning the lake was actually turning blue in the sunshine--it is really quite beautiful. We stopped at pretty much every single overlook, and the color changed depending on the moment and the sky and clouds. We ate our lunch at the Phantom Ship overlook. The Phantom Ship is actually a small island formed by a rock formation which is coming up out of the lake; it is the rim of an older volcano which was exposed when Mount Mazama imploded into the crater.
We took photos from every direction and sometimes I took photos just to avoid looking at the road itself! If you can imagine a road with exactly two lanes, no shoulder at all, and a drop-off at the edge of the lane straight down into a valley or over a cliff, you can imagine some of the spots on this Rim Road. Truly there were times I simply closed my eyes. Joe did a great job driving, though.
At about 3:30 we were ready to leave the park. I had decided earlier that the farthest we could get today was the city of Bend, OR, about 2 hours drive north of Crater Lake. The problem I had was, that from there, we were heading east, and there is NOTHING for 130 miles. And then, there’s precious little for another 130 miles or so, until the Idaho border. And THEN, I think there’s nothing TOO much until Boise. I really wanted a campground with hot showers and wifi. And I didn’t think I would find it any time soon after Bend. So that’s where we headed.
We didn’t have such an easy time finding those things in Bend, either! The first campground I called, which sounded VERY deluxe (fire pits on the patio of the clubhouse--huh?) actually told me we couldn’t come there, because Mo is too old! I’d heard of this before, but I think it’s the first time we’ve run into the problem. Then the GPS guided us to an address which our AAA book said was a state park, but turned out not to be a camping-type park, it was a city park. My Woodall’s app in my iPod was not being too helpful either. Tons of Forest Service campgrounds but not many private campgrounds. Finally the GPS gave us a park based on proximity to where we are--turns out it was listed under the town of Sisters, not Bend, which is why I hadn’t found it. So we are at a very very fancy KOA, with gardens, a lake, a manicured dog walk, patios for our picnic table and grass for the rest of our site, heated shower floors (!), and all kinds of pleasant things. Joe and I are sitting outside in our lawn chairs--he is reading, I am typing, and Roxy is enjoying lying in thelawn. It is delightful and I feel like I’m on a leisurely vacation. [PS: added at 10 pm: the shower/bathroom building is like a spa. Absolutely gorgeous and deluxe (designer sinks!?!) What a pleasure.]
Only one problem: the wifi STINKS here! I have been able to answer two letters, but I can’t get any pages on the blog to load. So I will not be updating the blog, certainly not with photos, until I don’t know when. This is completely unsatisfactory as far as I am concerned, and we will not be doing our trips this way again. It is just too frustrating. I can live without the email, but I love my blogging! [PS: At 10 pm the bandwidth opened up! I have uploaded 3 days of blogs, without photos thus far. But at least my days have been recorded for posterity!]
Tomorrow we will be heading due east via US 20, a road which runs from the Oregon coast to Boston. We will be taking it only as far (right now( as I-84 in Idaho, and from there to Craters of the Moon National Recreation Area. At least, that is the plan.
We had a lovely day at Crater Lake today. We overslept, because Joe’s phone (with our alarm on it) ran out of battery during the night. So we were well rested when we finally got up and got going. We could see blue sky and Roxy and I had a nice walk before we pulled out of our campground. Stopped at the village store, and discovered they had showers! That is something that would have been of interest to me
We spent most of the day going around the Rim Road of Crater Lake. Sure enough, this morning the lake was actually turning blue in the sunshine--it is really quite beautiful. We stopped at pretty much every single overlook, and the color changed depending on the moment and the sky and clouds. We ate our lunch at the Phantom Ship overlook. The Phantom Ship is actually a small island formed by a rock formation which is coming up out of the lake; it is the rim of an older volcano which was exposed when Mount Mazama imploded into the crater.
We took photos from every direction and sometimes I took photos just to avoid looking at the road itself! If you can imagine a road with exactly two lanes, no shoulder at all, and a drop-off at the edge of the lane straight down into a valley or over a cliff, you can imagine some of the spots on this Rim Road. Truly there were times I simply closed my eyes. Joe did a great job driving, though.At about 3:30 we were ready to leave the park. I had decided earlier that the farthest we could get today was the city of Bend, OR, about 2 hours drive north of Crater Lake. The problem I had was, that from there, we were heading east, and there is NOTHING for 130 miles. And then, there’s precious little for another 130 miles or so, until the Idaho border. And THEN, I think there’s nothing TOO much until Boise. I really wanted a campground with hot showers and wifi. And I didn’t think I would find it any time soon after Bend. So that’s where we headed.
We didn’t have such an easy time finding those things in Bend, either! The first campground I called, which sounded VERY deluxe (fire pits on the patio of the clubhouse--huh?) actually told me we couldn’t come there, because Mo is too old! I’d heard of this before, but I think it’s the first time we’ve run into the problem. Then the GPS guided us to an address which our AAA book said was a state park, but turned out not to be a camping-type park, it was a city park. My Woodall’s app in my iPod was not being too helpful either. Tons of Forest Service campgrounds but not many private campgrounds. Finally the GPS gave us a park based on proximity to where we are--turns out it was listed under the town of Sisters, not Bend, which is why I hadn’t found it. So we are at a very very fancy KOA, with gardens, a lake, a manicured dog walk, patios for our picnic table and grass for the rest of our site, heated shower floors (!), and all kinds of pleasant things. Joe and I are sitting outside in our lawn chairs--he is reading, I am typing, and Roxy is enjoying lying in thelawn. It is delightful and I feel like I’m on a leisurely vacation. [PS: added at 10 pm: the shower/bathroom building is like a spa. Absolutely gorgeous and deluxe (designer sinks!?!) What a pleasure.]
Only one problem: the wifi STINKS here! I have been able to answer two letters, but I can’t get any pages on the blog to load. So I will not be updating the blog, certainly not with photos, until I don’t know when. This is completely unsatisfactory as far as I am concerned, and we will not be doing our trips this way again. It is just too frustrating. I can live without the email, but I love my blogging! [PS: At 10 pm the bandwidth opened up! I have uploaded 3 days of blogs, without photos thus far. But at least my days have been recorded for posterity!]
Tomorrow we will be heading due east via US 20, a road which runs from the Oregon coast to Boston. We will be taking it only as far (right now( as I-84 in Idaho, and from there to Craters of the Moon National Recreation Area. At least, that is the plan.
1 comment:
We don't understand your unit being to old to use the camp ground. Did Dr. Joe give them an ear full?
We're glad that you hit Crater Lake. We only viewed it from the rim. Maybe the rim road was closed-not sure.
There was a Hepatitus scare when we were there. It was not easy to find out of any of our 3 kids had anything to drink.
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