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| Photo- Pelicans on the Upper Klamath Lake. |
Shortly after passing Fish Lake, I took a right turn on to
County Rd #821 on my way to Butte Falls.
I was driving through wonderful scenic forestland. The road got rather curvy and I started to
slow for the turns. Before I knew it I
was coming around a corner and BOOM!
There are cows in the middle of the road! COWS?!?! Yes, I was in the middle of an open range
area which happens quite a bit in Oregon but this was the first time I had
actually seen cows on the road. There
were 7 large Black Angus cows in the middle of the road. I slowed to a stop.
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| Photo- HOLY COW! They're in the road! |
The cows just stood in the middle of the road. HELLO! Move you big animals! The car that was behind me started to honk
and I followed suit; me being a City Girl had no idea what to do with cows in
the middle of the road. Low and behold;
they started to move off the road.
Yeah! As I drove by the cows just
stared blankly at me. I never realized
how dumb cows could be.
I drove through the town of Butte Falls and after that the
forestland was set back and fenced farms with green fields took up the
foreground. It was very pretty with
horses and cows in the fields; with the periodic red barn or unpainted barn
here and there.
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| Photo- Farms with forest land in the background. Wonderful scenery! |
I continued on; thinking that I was still on County Rd #821
but turns out I wasn’t. I ended up
coming out to Hwy 62 about 5 miles south of a cute small town called Shady
Cove. It was 15 miles south west of
where I should have come out on Hwy 62.
But that was okay. I went through
Shady Cove where the cop sat right by the quickly reduced speed limit for the
town. I practically slammed on my
brakes; to go from 55mph to 30mph. I
even managed a quick smile and way to the cop as I slowly went by. But I HAD to stop for a quick picture of the
pink Phil’s Frosty. I later found out
that it’s the place in Shady Cove to stop and eat ice cream or burgers. There did seem to be a great deal of cars out
front and it wasn’t even 11AM.
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| Photo- A hot spot and VERY pink place in Shady Cove! |
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| Photo- The Rogue River as seen from a city park just north of Shady Cove. |
I went along Hwy 62 where off to the right I could see the
Rogue River. It was a very scenic area
with trees starting to change along the river and exposed rocks next to the
road. I drove past the small town of
Prospect and on to Union Creek where I was told to definitely stop at Beckie’s
Restaurant. It was either their cinnamon
roll or a piece of one of their pies that came highly recommended. I stopped and I still had about 15 minutes of
breakfast being served.
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| Photo- A bird just taking off I saw on the Rogue River. |
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| Photo- A MUST stop for thier cinnamon rolls or pie! |
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| Photo- The inside of Beckie's Restaurant. |
I opted for the yummy cinnamon French toast and hot
coffee. OMG! It was dessert for breakfast! It was as I was enjoying my breakfast that I
over heard what sounded like Germans trying to learn to pronounce English
words. It was rather interesting
listening. As I was finishing my
breakfast and looking at a map that I discovered I was close to a couple of
sightseeing view sights. I figured I
could definitely use a bit of hiking to work off breakfast.
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| Photo- Natural Bridge- where Rogue River runs under these lava rocks for 200ft. and then comes out. |
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| Photo- Water comes out of Natural Bridge and there are side lava caves. |
I did a bit of back tracking and went to the Natural Bridge
parking lot. The Natural Bridge is along
the Rogue River and it’s where the river runs in lava tubes for about
200ft. I grabbed my camera and off I
went for the ¾ mile hike where there are viewpoints all along to see the
Natural Bridge. I read about the
temperature of the water and how many gallons per minute that went through the
Natural Bridge. It was amazing and you
could just hear the roar of the water as it went through the area.
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| Photo- Rogue River Gorge. |
Next, I went by Beckie’s and discovered that while having
breakfast I was about ½ block from a view overlook of the Rogue River
Gorge. I grabbed my camera again and off
I went down the path. This path however
was packed with senior citizens. It was
a tour bus. So I tried to slowly work my
way through the group to where I could overlook the gorge area too.
While trying to do that, the tour guide started talking to
me. He talked about how Oregon’s
sportsmen’s, being so sports challenging orientated, used to canoe through this
gorge area until about 2 years ago the state had to outlaw it. He never heard of anyone dying doing it but
he pointed out that it was seriously dangerous and he could imagine that some
of they did die attempting it. Why he
shared that with me? I’m unsure why he
chose to share that information with me and he kept his voice down when he told
me about it; so that none of the seniors could hear about it. Strange.
Rather than turning east when Hwy 62 turned, I decided to
continue on Hwy 230 up to Diamond Lake; a lake that I could see when I was on
the trolley tour up at Crater Lake. Yes,
I was just west of Crater Lake and heading north. I thought I want to see that lake from the
shoreline.
I was about 6 miles north of there when I saw a sign that
said—National Creek Falls with an arrow.
On the spur of the moment, I thought why not. I turned the car. I went down the road 3 miles to a sign with
another arrow. It said 2.5 miles on a
one lane road with turn outs. Okay, I
thought I came this far. I drove on the
one lane road and only had a pickup truck that I had to wait for in a
turnout. I got to the next sign that
pointed me off to the right to a parking area and another sign that had an
arrow and said ½ mile hike. I came this
far and hoped it was really an actual waterfall but I continued on.
Down the dirt path I went.
It hairpin turned down the side of a hill quickly and seemed to go back
and forth again, and again, and again down the hill. Wait a minute; this has got to be more than ½
mile by now. BUT I continued on the
path. I got to the bottom and saw a
couple with three dogs. I went over a
couple of logs and off to my left I heard and saw an amazing waterfall. I could even feel the mist off of the
fall.
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| Photo- National Creek Falls a secret hidden off the road a ways. |
I petted the dogs, of course, and talked with the
couple. They were from Grants Pass and
came here to get away from the heat for the day. It was as I was leaving that the guy mentioned
that he saw a black bear about ¼ mile down on the road when they came in. Oh, great I thought and here I am walking
alone in black bear territory! Go
figure! Note- It is recommended that you
never go alone in black bear territory.
They are more likely to attack lone hikers. Well, I decided to just book it back to my
car, but I figured that if I talked to myself in two different voices that I
could trick a black bear into thinking that there was more than just me in the
area. Yes, I really can be that silly
and naïve at the same time!
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| Photo- The view of Mt Bailey on my way to Diamond Lake. |
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| Photo- Diamond Lake a popular fishing place. |
I swung by the gas station there to get a bit before I headed back to Klamath Falls. It was funny because the attendant said that he had waited on a Jeep earlier in the day that was from Utah too. He asked if it was Utah day and he didn’t get the memo. I just shrugged my shoulders and smiled. Then, off south I went back to Klamath Falls.
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