Central Oregon (Bend and Crater Lake)
We’re in the middle of our gauntlet of mini-vacations. Two weeks ago, we were in Friday Harbor, and now we’re off to Central Oregon for a few days. And in another two weeks, we’ll be heading to Denver.
Friday morning, we prepped for our 6 hour drive from Seattle to Sunriver, where we’ll be staying. We got our coffee and breakfast sandwiches, and headed off on I5 south to Portland, which would be a good place to take stop and break up the long drive. Also, I wanted to get donuts from Blue Star, and this was my excuse to do so, and my plan succeeded:
After our short donut and lunch break, we continued on our way to Sunriver. What we didn’t realize was that there were multiple fires still happening in Central Oregon, and about 90 minutes into our drive out of Portland, we started smelling the smoke from the fires. And then soon after, we saw the haze of the smoke just smothering the sky and sun…it was surreal.
During the time we spent on a flat part of the drive, we were able to get a view of Mt. Jefferson:
The rest of the drive wasn’t as interesting, although some parts of rural Central Oregon frighten me, especially with the State of Jefferson flags and the Impeach Biden Harris flags. And then I remember that there are a fair number of white nationalists in the state, and so we basically drove through directly to Bend. It was amazing to just look around and seeing predominantly middle to older aged white men everywhere…
After buying some groceries in Bend, we wanted to fill up our tank, and we both completely forgot that in Oregon, gas stations are full-service. We only realized this when we drove up to the pump, and Nick asked why there were so many young kids in Shell uniform, and then I told him that they’re going to pump our gas. So yeah, if you’re coming from out of state, be warned that some (if not all) gas stations in Oregon are full-service.
Finally, we made it to Sunriver and to our rental home:
It was dinner time, so we ordered burgers from a nearby place and brought it back. Driving for 6+ hours is a little draining, so we were too tired to find food back in Bend.
The next morning, it was raining, but we sort of knew this was going to happen, so we planned on going to the High Desert Museum first. To be honest, our expectations were low, but it turned out to be a surprisingly big place. They have multiple indoor exhibits, including a large one about how the area was settled. There were many recreations of scenes from that time, which was a nice surprise, and brought a serious “Oregon Trail” vibe:
There’s also a large outdoor zoo/forest/pioneer area with various exhibits. The otter exhibit looked nice, but the otters were sleeping, so we didn’t get to see any. There was also an exhibit of old settler homes, but that was closed to the public, so we could only see it from the outside:
They also had a recreation of a sawmill from the early 1900’s and based on the sign that was posted, I think they normally had people who would act like they were from that area, and you could interact with them. Unfortunately for us, it was empty, but we could still walk around the area:
Finally, there’s a bird of prey exhibit, with a bald eagle, a falcon, and some owls. It was feeding time, so the falcons and eagle were plucking their lunch from whatever dead animal they were given, so not the most photogenic of moments. But it did emphasize how powerful these birds are when they have their prey.
At this time, the rain had stopped, so we headed back into Bend to actually see the city. The first stop was the Old Mill District. About 120 years ago, the train was coming through the area to connect the west coast to the rest of the country. They needed wood for the rail ties, and because of the close proximity to trees in the area, it was a great spot for lumber and milling.
And now it’s an upscale shopping mall:
We didn’t spend too much time here since instead of a historic district, it looked like any other outdoor shopping mall we’ve been to, so we decided to go to downtown Bend for lunch. We went to a cute lunch spot called Blissful Spoon, and walked to the river afterwards:
So pretty.
We made one last stop at a place called the Box Factory, where we stopped by a store called Modern Games to pick up a board game to play later on this trip. If we had more time, we might have stopped by Immersion Brewing or Avid Cider to get a drink, but we wanted to head off to see Newberry Volcanic National Monument before it got too dark.
And of course, the moment we arrive, the rain started again, so enjoy this gloomy photo of Lava Butte:
It also felt silly to obsess over lava fields after recently visiting Iceland.
We then headed further into the park to see Benham Falls. The hike from the parking lot is only 1/2 a mile, and on the bridge, you get some great views of the Deschutes River:
And then we got to the “falls”, which was really just an area of the river with rapids in it. We were a little disappointed, but it was still cool to see the rushing waters:
Finally we headed back to Sunriver, and we realized that we never actually explored the resort or the area. So before the sun set, we drove around and took a few photos:
Crater Lake
Our good friends from Seattle, who recently moved to Ashland Oregon drove up to stay with us for the night so that the next morning, we could caravan to Crater Lake. Unfortunately for us, the wet weather during the weekend meant that up at Crater Lake, where the elevation of the rim drive is about 8000 feet, the rain turned to snow. The rain was actually good for the area because it helped with the containment of some of the forest fires, and also helped clear out the smoke in the sky. But for us, it meant that the moment we started to drive up to the lake, we were driving into very thick fog.
We knew that we would probably have no reception once we got there, so we had agreed to meet up at the Rim Village Cafe. Our original plan was that our friends would park their car, and then we would drive together around the lake. Well, given that there was so much fog and slush on the roads, we decided not to do that. Instead, we walked from the cafe to down a short path to where we would have a view of the lake. Given the current visibility, we didn’t hold out much hope that we’d see anything, but since we were there, we thought we’d at least try, and it was a good thing we did. We caught a very short break in the mist and were able to take some good photos of the lake:
After being elated that our drive wasn’t for naught, we needed to find food, but the only options were pre-packaged sandwiches in the cafe. We even drove down to another cafe, but it turned out that they were closed for lunch, even though the NPS website said they’d be open. At this point, we said goodbye to our friends because we were near the gate that they would take to go back home. It was sad, but we’ll see them again in a couple of weeks in Denver.
Nick and I drove back up to the Rim Village cafe to enjoy a sandwich lunch in our car, yum….
And then we decided that we’ll at least do a short drive to the northern part of the Carter Lake rim drive. At this point, we had been in the park for about 2 hours, but the fog had partially lifted, so our drive back down the same road, and in the north, actually revealed some wonderful views of Crater Lake:
If we were willing to stay to the evening, we were sure we’d get some great views with the sun, but we decided to head back to Sunriver to call it an evening, and also to prepare for our long drive back home.
It was great to finally check this off of our list of places to visit, and we were happy to see our friends after they moved away. We can see why people who’ve visited love staying in the Bend area. There’s a lot of cool parks to visit, many breweries to enjoy, and a generally chill and relaxing vibe when you stroll along the river.