← Back to all postsSummer 2019 - Bend Oregon
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As with most summers recently, I had taken off two weeks in late July and early
August to fly back out to the west coast to visit family and go camping to Bend
Oregon. My family has been visiting Bend for the past 6+ years every summer,
there's something up with the high desert around Central Oregon that is a
welcome retreat from the rest of our average days. This blog post will mostly be
in the form of short entries for each day during the trip. I will be posting
photos from the trip in a follow-up post.
July 20th
I flew in on Saturday July 20th, which was coincidentally my birthday as well.
Arriving at 9:30am at SeaTac. My parents picked me up at the airport and we
immediately set off to visit a Dennys. Dennys still does a free breakfast meal
for your birthday so I ordered a ton of eggs, hash browns, pancakes, and toast,
splitting some sausage and bacon with my mom.
We then drove the hour and a half to my parents house, where we immediately set
into action on packing up the camping trailer we were taking down to Bend. We
had to pack clothes, food, and all the accessories including the bikes in the
back of the truck and a box of firewood.
July 21st
We set off a bit later than we usually would, but we had planned on staying a
night at Brooks Memorial state park just outside of Goldendale Washington. It
was about a 4 hour drive to Brooks, I spent most of the time of that drive
reading The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. It was a copy that a friend from
college had loaned me and I had read previously, the worn, sun burnt pages
called to me when I was looking at my bookshelf in my old room.
We had pulled into Brooks Memorial in the early evening, setting up the trailer
and then cooking up a few sausages on the grill. Along with the sausages we had
some fresh guacamole, some cucumber pico de gallo that my parents had picked up
at the Snohomish farmers market. We topped off the evening by playing some
Yahtzee and watching the other campers set up as they pulled in.
July 22nd
We woke up early in the morning and made some fried egg sandwiches, and then
quickly packed up our trailer and set out driving South to Bend. Most of the day
was spent on driving down to Bend, finding a camping spot and then we went back
into town to pick up some groceries for the week.
When we got back we had cooked up some turkey burgers with gouda and canadian
bacon, and had some leftover guacamole as well.
During dinner we planned out some of the things we wanted to do on Tuesday and
Wednesday.
July 23rd
We got up early to drive down to Crater Lake and drive around the rim road. It
had been at least a few years since we last visited the national park, and we
had planned on doing most of the shorter hikes around the crater.
We started by driving clockwise around the lake, pulling off at all the
different pull outs to get amazing views of the bright blue lake. We then went
down towards the pinnacles, and did a short 2 mile hike to the Plaikni Falls. We
didn't go out to these falls the last time we were at the park so it was a new
experience.
The hike was a pleasant one, except for the large amount of mosquitoes, but
luckily we had brought some bug spray with us. At the end of the hike is a short
vertical section that leaves you about 30 feet from the base of the falls. It
was incredibly refreshing to take off my hat and soak it in the water and then
put it back on. We stayed there for a few minutes, collecting a few photos and
videos of the falls and the river it was feeding, then hiked back out on the
same trail back to the truck.
From the falls, we drove down to the Pinnacles, and took a short walk along this
large canyon filled on the sides with large spires of stone and dirt left over
from the previous eruption thousands of years ago.
We continued our drive around the lake, pulling off at a lookout near Mount
Scott, the tallest peak in the park. Looking up we could see a fire lookout at
the top of the peak and also we could see several groups of hikers working their
way up to the peak along a ridgeline. There was still large swatches of snow
left on the mountain from the winter, and it was pretty amazing to see so close
up.
We then made our way around to the Rim Village, which had a visitor center, and
an old resort that was constructed back in the 50's. We used the restrooms and
did a bit of shopping, and then continued on our trip around the lake, making a
last stop at the Watchman lookout. From this stop we could see up to another
fire lookout at the top of Watchman peak, there was a long trail going up to the
peak but we didn't have enough time to do that hike.
We left the park, heading back to our trailer and picked up some delicious ice
cream treats and dinner at a Dairy Queen about 10 miles south of the campground.
July 24th
We woke up a bit later than usual this morning due to general exhaustion from
our previous day at Crater Lake. We had a good breakfast of hash browns and
fried eggs and then packed up the bicycles into the truck as we drove over to
Sunrivier. We planned to bike around Sunriver which has an extensive network of
bike trails all around the small town, houses, and local airport.
We had biked several miles, out and around the airport, and then along the
Deschutes river where it borders the town, and we took a short-cut on our way
back to where we parked.
We walked around the shopping village in Sunriver, and then went into the local
grocery store to pick up some hot dogs for dinner, and some refreshing teas from
Starbucks.
After dropping off the bikes at the trailer, and cleaning up a bit we went into
Bend to visit the farmers market, and do a bit of shopping on main street. We
topped off the evening by having dinner at McMenamins where we enjoyed a hummus
plate, a salad, a delicious burger with bacon-coffee jam and a fried egg, and a
large pizza that we packed up at the end of the meal.
July 25th
The plan for the day today is to drive out and around the Cascade Scenic Byway,
a short loop around Mount Bachelor that goes past several large cascade lakes
within the Deschutes national forest. In total, without stopping it takes about
two hours, but and we ended up stopping at several lakes and reservoirs.
We first drove to the Twin Lakes Resort, a small campground and resort right off
of the Wickiup Reservoir, there was a school group and several other families
there along the beach and in inflated tubes and toys along the water. We stopped
at another resort along another lake, and then made our way to Cultus Lake.
Here we picked up a 6 pack of Sweet As Pale Ale, and set out a large towel to
eat some of the leftover pizza and other snacks we brought for lunch along the
drive. We relaxed for a few more minutes, reading our books and taking in the
views of the lake, surrounding forests and mountains.
After Cultus Lake we made our way around the loop, visiting next Lava Lake, then
Elk Lake which is one of the larger lakes along the route. The water was
slightly cool, but refreshing in the heat of the sun and warmed up quickly. Both
Elk and Cultus lakes had a small marina, with a few sail boats (nothing longer
than 30 feet) and a collection of other small boats and motor vehicles.
After Elk Lake, we stopped at Devils Lake at 5,446 feet of elevation the water
here was the coldest out of any of the lakes we visited, as it was being freshly
fed from the snow runoff from the South Sister and Broken Top. The lake uniquely
changes colors from a dark green blue to a bright turquoise green on the side
away from where the water was coming into it. There were a few different groups,
some camping in the tent spots on the lake, others kayaking, and a few others
using standup paddle boards.
We wrapped up the evening by driving past Mount Bachelor, going into Bend to
pick up a few more groceries for the rest of the trip, and then we cooked up a
few cheeseburgers back at our trailer for dinner. We finished the evening with a
game of hand and foot.
July 26th
We started the day a bit late, finishing a full breakfast of hashbrowns, fried
eggs, sausage patties and toasted buns around 11 as we were still making plans
for what we wanted to do. We decided to run a few errands at some of the stores
in Bend, so we started by visiting the local outlet mall, then Kohl's, Lowes,
the local RV shop, Costco, and finally finishing at the Humm Kombucha tap house
in bed, filling up a small collection of growlers and growlettes with different
flavors of Kombucha.
We stopped off at Bend Burger Company for a late lunch around 3 and had amazing
burgers, fries, onion rings and tater tots.
We plan on finishing up the evening early, packing up a large part of the
trailer so we can hit the road early tomorrow to head back to Snohomish. We have
decided to skip staying a night at Brooks Memorial State Park so we have more
time on Sunday to clean up the trailer, do laundry, and pack for our next trip
to Vashon Island, and then to Leavenworth later in the week.
This year's Bend trip was a pleasant relaxing week, hitting a lot of our
favorite places around central Oregon, while also getting a bit of relaxation
in, and a ton of sun too!
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