Vacation, Day 7, heading home

This is Daisy in a pet exercise area (off leash) at Lewis and Clark State Park. She was very excited.
We went to Sheri's to have breakfast (pancakes!!), where I came up with the brilliant idea to throw (drop) my credit card in the middle of the parking lot and just leave it there (although I didn't figure this out until way later).

Our final stop on our marvelous vacation was a stop at Knottliten Cottage! Awesome new fence!!

Vacation, Day 6

We drove north to Mt. Hood National Forest. We drove by multiple campgrounds, most of them were closed for the winter season. We found a spot, a little bit off the road, but deep within the trees right along the Hood River. The mountain air was cool and crisp, especially right by the water, so we were very excited.
We set up camp and hung around the river most of the morning. It was still cool into the afternoon, so we were confidant that we could leave Daisy behind with no worries that she would get too hot. We could see a pull off with a few cars about 1/4 mile after the turn off to our camp, so we had a pretty good idea that there may be some hiking around. Daisy was happy to stay and sleep the day away.

We walked along the river about 1/4 of a mile, and sure enough, we found a trail head. Waterfalls 2 miles ahead; and we were off!

Finally, some fall colors!

Sweet bridge

Red single on a yellow tree

And we made it!! Beautiful

The only thing missing in this picture is Daisy, but I am sure she was sleeping anyway :)

Vacation, Day 5

It was hard to leave the campsite, but there was still so much more of Oregon to see. We drove through and around Bend and looked at some houses that Jered had worked on (it was really cute), stopped at some stores and headed out of town. I have to say, those roundabout things all over the town would take some getting used to.
Bachelor, Broken Top, and another one I don't remember....

Smith Rock

Smith Rock

And seriously, one of the funniest signs that I have ever seen!!

So we pull up to this rest area (state park) and park to let Daisy go to the bathroom. I could get passed the fact that the two acres of super wonderful oasis like green grass were not to be used to have dogs poop all over, but the pet area was a little corner sand box. That is fine, Daisy doesn't care where she pees.

The sign, though, you could see when you first pull up in the parking lot. So we looked at the sign and were like, "wow, that is strange, I don't see a cliff anywhere". Then way far off in the distance, we could see groups of people on a walkway. I became so curious I made Jered stay with Daisy so I could go look at this place where 'many dogs have died'.

It takes me five minutes to walk over where the people are, and when I get there, I see a cobblestone fence/barricade that is blocking the edge (standing to at least waist high to me). I look over the edge......and wow......

It was a flippin long ways down there. I had to step back and take a breath before I looked again. Looking that way you could see a railroad bridge.

And looking the other way was the highway bridge. I was really surprised, but still unsure how so many dogs could have died here. Maybe before the barricade thing was built, but I would surely be more worried about any children around than I would be about a dog. Anyway, I walked back to the car and made Jered go look, the pictures don't even show how spectacular it was. It still seemed a little hard to believe that any dogs have died there, but it was a great laugh. We didn't walk Daisy over, even though I was pretty confidant that she would not jump over the cliff after a bird. And we moved on.

This vacation day was one of the hottest of the trip. The honda didn't like that at all, and just like on our honeymoon, it broke down. We sat on the side of the road for a bit, but then got brave and decided to try to make it to The Cove Palasades State Park. Since I hadn't been to the park before, I had no idea what to expect, but we ended up going down a super steep hill into the middle of a canyon. We passed one campground, but the sign said there were more ahead (and it was an RV campground) so we continued on. We made it to the next campground, and it was CLOSED (we saw the signs as we were leaving, but didn't help then :). We turned around and headed to the day use area, so we could give the car a break.

Dooh!! No dogs allowed here either! Should have looked at the signs before paying $5. We hung out there until the sun went down, then headed back to the RV park that we had seen earlier. It turned out to be a state park campground, so we were pros when it came to filling out our SRE (self registration envelope :).

This was our site, not very secluded, but still very pretty. We took multiple showers, which was very fun (super clean!). Camping has a totally different feel when you are within close quarters of others, so we were up and ready early the next morning to find another place we could call home for the night. We have learned over time that the Honda doesn't like to drive much after 4PM in the hot sun and in high altitudes. Crazy, coastal car!! :)

Vacation, Day 4

We woke up early on our 4th vacation morning feeling lazy. We headed out to find our next camp site early, so we could just sit around and relax all day. We passed by this heard (if that is what you call them) of antelope, which was exciting since that was one wild animal that was on my list to see :)
Only one out of the 23 or so that we saw had horns.

We stopped at La Pine State Park to check it out. There, we got to see the biggest ponderosa pine in the state. We may, or may not have crossed the fence to get our picture in front of it (but I would never show state park employees breaking rules, right:).

Below is a shot of the biggest ponderosa pine in Oregon.......

And the tree below was just too funny to not take a picture of.

This is the day use area at La Pine, it was pretty big and awesome. The Deschutes river is friggin cold, but I am sure on a hot day it feels really good. Still too early for us.

We didn't have to drive much farther to find the perfect campsite. This one has to be my top spot of the trip (although I loved the one by Collier Memorial as well). The spot was right along the Deschutes river, pretty secluded, and super hot!!

Daisy laid in the shade for most of the day. I could only stand the sun until 2 or so, then I joined her.

What a view!!

Daisy in the shade.

The sun was setting, so it was finally cool enough to leave Daisy in the car and take a stroll. Such a beautiful sunset!!

Vacation, Day 3

Ospreys in their nest
Jered peering in

Green Water

Collier Logging Museum

RockTop

Sunset on Campsite

Sunset Over Summer Lake

Hillside Sunset

Cloud Swoop

Vacation, Day 2

Vacation day number two was spent at Crater Lake. We were up early to beat most of the crowd, but it just so happened to be National Park Day, so all day use fees were waived.
It is a beautiful place!!!

We left the park and headed south. We stopped close to Collier State Park and looked to set up camp for the night.

We found an awesome spot right on a river! Below is Jered sweeping the giant Ponderosa pine needles away from the fire pit.