DAY 30 -Rogue-Umpqua Scenic Byway…

I planned on a scenic drive through central southern Oregon for the day.  Grant, Kimmie’s partner, had mentioned a nice route to drive but that it would take a whole day.  So I started out early; skipping breakfast and heading north out of Klamath Falls.  I passed by the Upper Klamath Lake and all of the pelicans.  I took Hwy 140 west after Rocky Point and went past Lake of the Woods and Fish Lake off into new Oregon territory for me.


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. 

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. 

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.

Photo- A hot spot and VERY pink place in Shady Cove!

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. 

Photo- A bird just taking off I saw on the Rogue River.

 

Photo- A MUST stop for thier cinnamon rolls or pie!

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. 

Photo- Natural Bridge- where Rogue River runs under these lava rocks for 200ft. and then comes out.

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.

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. 

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!

Photo- The view of Mt Bailey on my way to Diamond Lake. 

I’m glad to say I made it back to my car safely and was not a headliner on a local TV news show.  Off I went back to Hwy 230 and continued north to Diamond Lake.  Diamond Lake is a wonderful lake to see from its shoreline.  It also is a very popular area.  There were quite a few boats full of fisherman out on the lake.  I also drove through quite a resort area with restaurant, cabins, and hotel. 

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.

DAY 28- Crater Lake...

The last time that I saw Crater Lake was about 8 years ago.  It was in the early part of July and there was about 4 to 5 ft. of snow still surrounding the lake.  I had pictures of myself, my dog Rocky, and my friend Kory posing with a snowman in our shorts with the lake behind us.  Sorry, the copies of those photos are buried somewhere in a little 5X5 storage unit in Salt Lake City.  So you see, I had some memory of seeing the lake before.

Photo- My first sight of Crater Lake from Rim Village. Wow!

But when I got to the Rim Village and got out of my car, the lake still took my breath away.  It was rather surprising to see it with no snow, and the brilliant blue color didn’t seem quite as brilliant as the last time I saw it.  I think that was due to a couple of factors.  The first is that there’s smoke in the whole area because of the fire up at Sister’s is still burning.  In fact, that fire has now doubled overnight and they are struggling to attempt to contain it.  The second reason it doesn’t seem as brilliant blue is because there’s no snow.  The contrast with the snow and the light that the snow throws off just makes that blue of Crater Lake all that much more dramatic.

Photo- The pretty scenery on the drive but
note smoke making distance sighting hard.

I explored around the Rim village very quickly.  Taking quite a few pictures but not really being able to catch the real awe of the place.  I took the short trail down to Sinnott Memorial Overlook and got an even more amazing view of the lake.  I tried not to look down because I got a bit dizzy from the height.  Inside and behind the overlook area there’s a room with background information about the lake.  I walked along the path area that runs along the lake in the Rim Village area.

Photo- The view from Sinnott Memorial Overlook.

Photo- A photo taken from the Sinnott Memorial Overlook
(without the roof.)

I really had hoped to take the boat ride that goes down on the lake but the day before was the last day of the season that they ran the boat.  Go figure!  So I opted instead to take a trolley tour guide that goes along the rim road.  It’s a little over a two hour tour; stopping along the way and the National Parks Tour Guide explaining things as we go along.  I went to the Rim Village Café and grabbed lunch while I waited for my time slot for the trolley tour.  I ended up having a conversation with a gentleman named Frank who was from Grant Pass.  He invited me to join him and his friend for a 3 hour hike up to Garfield Peak; a trail with a 1000ft climb.  I thanked him and told him I had already reserved a tour on the trolley.  All I could imagine that I would’ve probably slowed down him and his friend.

Photo- Me with Crater Lake.

The trolley tour around Crater Lake is very well worth the $25; and the guide that I had, Dave, was a former school teacher that was cracking puns and jokes along the way.  At one point, he even got out props of a rubber chicken and a huge pair of men’s underwear.  He would make up names of the Crater Lake scientists and what not like; Rockand Debris, who was an assistant to the Lake’s geologist. Dave, our tour guide, kept it interesting and seemed not to mind the hecklers at all.  In fact, one of the hecklers was a man from Texas and later he made a comment about sometimes people will come up with their boats pulled by large diesel trucks and expect to be able to fish on the lake with their boats.  Quite often, they are Texan’s wearing big ten gallon hats.

Photo- Inside the full trolley tour.

The tour guide then goes on to explain that access to the lake is near impossible. There are cliffs along the lake that vary in heights from 300ft to 1000ft.  The boats that are currently on the lake were helicoptered in and placed onto the lake.  They are stored and winterized just off to the side of the lake. 

Yes, there’s fish in the lake that were stocked into the lake years ago and in fact, they have fishing allowed.  It’s quite a hike to get down there to fish.  The fish are not native to the lake and some feel that the fish may have already made an impact on the ecology of the area but the only way to get rid of the fish safely would be to have them fished out.

What cause Crater Lake to be what it is?  Well, the tour guide explained that they believe at one time there was a HUGE mountain thousands of years ago and it had a volcanic episode.  Then, it collapse a bit on itself and over 800 years snow melting has filled it up.  But the interesting thing is because of a pumice area of rock in one of the cliff areas it maintains a certain height of water inside and will never overflow.  The pumice stone cliff area acts as similar as an overflow spout area works in a sink.  Thus, this lake will never overflow and evaporate.

The lake is one of the clearest waters in the world; and has done a clarity test that proved clear all the way down to 144ft.  The only other that comes close is Tahoe Lake which tested to 70ft. down.  The water is so clear because its source is only the snow pack that comes from snow.  There are no underground springs or rivers that run into the crater. The area gets on average 533 inches of snow.  In fact, the tour guide said he took about 800 years for the snow pack to fill the area.

Crater Lake is the 7^th deepest body of water in the world at 1,943ft.  The tour guide then did a visual prop of showing how deep the lake was.  He took a picture of the Eiffel Tour, the Washington Monument, and the Statue of Liberty; one right above the other.  He said that there still would be 150ft of water above that.  Across one way the lake is 6 miles and is 5 miles the other way.  The tour guide told a story of how a well known female swimmer had swam across the Lake in 1939.  Of course, she swam the 6 mile distance, she didn't want to be considered a sissy.  (This tour guide had me cracking up!)  It took the swimmer nearly 42 hours to swim across it.

Did I mention I was glad to take the trolley tour around the lake because it saved me trying to drive it?  I’m a bit scared of heights and there were times where off to the side of the road looked like a sheer 300 ft. drop off.  It was more than what my nerves could’ve handled and I’m really not sure I could bike around the lake either because that would unnerve me.  But I was glad to have the bus driver being driving, then I could look up and across (not down) and I could enjoy it.

Photo- The gully area that runs along the road on the way up to Crater Lake.
That's called Annie's Falls down there but that's as close as you get.

After the trolley tour, I walked through the Crater Lake Lodge and found out that there was a talk being given by another National Park employee on the back porch area of the lodge.  The talk covered some of the same things that the trolley tour did, but went more in depth with the first visitors that came to Crater Lake.  It was interesting imagine how the early visitors came up the rugged terrain and they had to have camped out because of the distances and time involved.  Unlike my day where I could be 50 miles away, visit the park for several hours and still manage to be back at my Aunt’s for dinner.