Bend, OR

Bend, OR

Sunday, 8/7, we departed Twin Falls very excited to be reaching Oregon!  The drive though eastern Oregon was ok…it’s awful dry but some small mountains make most of the drive somewhat scenic.  We reach Bend in the afternoon.  Our first choice for a campground, Tumalo State Park, was full with no sites available.  Bummer!  It was the same with our second choice, a campground nearby in Sisters.  Finally, we settled on East Lake RV Park located in Newberry National Volcanic Monument.  The campground was nestled next to East Lake, which happens to be part of the Newberry caldera…we were camping in a volcano, the largest in the Cascades. 

It was a beautiful campground and evidently East Lake is packed full of trout.  We spent the first evening hanging out by the lake.  The next day we had plans in the evening to head into Bend to meet up with some folks for dinner.  It was an early evening…thank goodness we saved the firewood.  When we rolled out of the trailer the next morning it was COLD!  I don’t know for sure what the temperature was…high 30’s?  In no time at all there was a roaring fire.  It took a bit of coffee to warm up, but eventually we took Chewy for a hike around Paulina Lake and drove to the top of Paulina Peak.  At the top of the peak there is a great view of the most recent lava flow.  It was a wonderful way to spend a morning.  

View of Paulina Lake (foreground) and East Lake from Paulina Peak...you can also see the most recent Obsidian Flow coming down from the right.

Hiking around Paulina Lake

With Chewy’s orthopedic issues, she is good for hikes about two miles or less.  Anything longer seems to wear her out big time.  Having this in mind, we decided to board Chewy for a day so we could do a longer hike.  It sure was tough dropping her off for the night!  The mood lightened a bit over dinner at Worthy Brewing.  It was good to catch up with Nancy (a fellow co-worker from the Angola days) along with meeting some new folks.  After dinner we returned to camp looking forward to a night’s sleep without a dog hogging half of the mattress. 

For our big dogless day, we planned to do the Green Lakes Trail in the Deschutes National Forest.  After a hearty meal we were on our way to the trailhead of the 9 mile hike.  Several folks had said it was one of the most beautiful hikes in the area.  Judging from the amount of cars parked at the trailhead, it was also one of the more popular.  The trail follows a creek up a mountain for ~4.6 miles gaining about 1,250’ in elevation, ending up at two beautiful lakes that are flanked by peaks still holding numerous patches of snow.  All along the way there were lots of wild flowers blooming along the creek.  We sat by one of the lakes to eat lunch trying the whole time to absorb the surrounding beauty.   It really is an amazing place! On the way back down we parked our butts off the trail by the creek and enjoyed a couple glasses of wine…really nice way to spend an afternoon!!!

After the hike we returned to Bend to collect our pup from the boarding facility.  With a pit stop for some Thai take-out, we headed back to camp for one last campfire at the East Lake campground.  In the morning we were picking up and headed to Crater Lake.