Eastern Oregon Trip, Part 1

Our Eastern Oregon rock hunting trip!

This was our first real adventure of the summer.  I am so happy happy happy that summer has arrived and it has been wonderful.  We are not even two weeks in and we have spent so much time in the garden, Phil has worked on the play area and built a sandbox, and we have done one camping trip and created great family memories.

We camped in the Ochoco National Forest at Walton Lake.  It was so beautiful!  June in Eastern Oregon is really like Spring time.  It was a little like stepping back in time and getting to enjoy spring all over again.  The sagebrush was so fragrant and there were so many wildflowers in bloom - Indian paintbrush, little orchids, columbines, iris, and tons of others I didn't know the name of.  Even the wild strawberries were just beginning to blossom.  Here at home, all the spring flowers have come and gone, strawberry season is over, and I even had a sunflower in bloom upon our return.

On our way over the pass, the children noticed a rainbow around the sun.  It is called a "sun dog" or a parhelion and is caused by light refraction from ice crystals in the atmosphere.

Headed down the mountain toward Sisters.  

I love this drive.  We leave our rolling hills and farm fields, drive into the Willamette National Forest, with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and Detroit lake.  Then down into the high desert of Eastern Oregon and the Deschutes National Forest.  It is such an abrupt change from grasslands and greenery to Douglas fir forests to Ponderosa Pine forests and Sagebrush.  Such a different climate in only a two hour drive.  

Mount Washington viewpoint

Overlooking Prineville

Enjoying camp

Can you see Vienna burrowing in my mom's sweatshirt pocket?

I am a little disappointed with the pictures to follow....for some reason, I have about 25 pictures stuck on my camera card.  Phil has been unable to figure out how to get them out and downloaded in the computer.  They were mostly wildflowers, sites around Walton lake, and of the early morning mist rising from the lake.  So, there are just a few little snapshots from Monday evening through Tuesday morning that managed to download.

Morning mist rising off Walton Lake

Walton Lake

It is always fun to see plants that my mom had has seen before

Little orchids

When we got back to camp on Wednesday evening, we took a stroll around the lake.  




We saw lots of baby ducks.  One mom had 14 babies!




Camp life is always a bit of an adjustment.  Setting up the tent and bedding and breaking is all down is an ordeal and when you aren't used to "people" noise, it can be hard to sleep.  Our first campsite was about 20 feet away from another camping family.  They were perfectly comfortable staying up until 2 in the morning, chatting away around their fire (Phil joined them LOL), and they had an 18 month old who stayed up until 11:30 and then screamed both nights.  The adventure was the rain that started up around 10:30 or so.  Our rainfly seemed to be missing so we borrowed a couple of tarps from my parents and set those up.  Sometime after midnight, Phil decided to borrow their tent awning as well and set that up over part of our tent.  I will say this, despite tossing and turning awake for about 4 hours, I did enjoying tuning out the people noise and listening to the pittering of the raindrops and the singing frogs.

I was exhausted come Wednesday and napped twice in the car between rock hunting sites.  In the morning, we switched our campsite to the last one on the loop.  It was much better!  We were further away from the late night family and the talking was a background noise rather than a party.

The children did excellent!  They were excited of course but everyone was able to fall asleep and slept well the entire night...well, except for Sis who on the first night kept randomly shouting out that she was afraid of the dark LOL.  The second night was even better and the children slept in late.  

True confession.....I am a glamper.  I would LOVE a nice medium sized trailer, complete with a comfortable bed and clean sheets.  With little bunks for the children.  With a kitchenette and a refrigerator and pantry and stove and hot running water.  With air conditioning and a heater LOL.  I like very much the idea of home away from home, pulling over and into the campsite with no muss and fuss!  Being able to shut down windows and block out the sounds of other campers.  That is my idea of a good time.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Boots

Image
Last week, was snowy and cold cold cold, then rainy.  I continued to work on getting the yard cleaned up.  I dug out the ponds and refilled the holes with dirt.  I loaded up rocks, pavers, and bricks.  I cleaned out the water features.  I collected the strawberry runners so I would have starts to plant.  I unloaded 2 loads of bark dust.  The children were a tremendous help.  They loaded an entire trailer of firewood all by themselves and then helped with another load of rocks and bricks.  I am amazed at how much there is to load and fix just in the yard alone.  It is a lot of work for the simple concept of "curb" appeal.   Waiting for the snow to melt so I can put down the bark dust. Even with two pairs of socks, my feet were freezing so I broke down and bought a pair of Muck Boots.  The funny thing is, 2 years ago, I really wanted to have a new pair of winter boots but I just couldn't justify paying so much money just to have ...
Read more

Then Came Dense Fog and the Thunderstorm

Image
Sunday, I woke up to a dense fog and smoke cover combination.  I think this is probably the densest fog I have ever been in. Before the sun came up, it was white.  Once it got lighter outside the smoke color showed through. On the porch, looking toward the swimming pool (North) but unable to see it or the goat barn or the walnut trees. On the porch, looking toward the barn, only able to see the garden before the parking area. Outside the window looking at the tree block, barely 30 feet away. I am not sure how I let Phil talk me into (trying) going to the store...but the fog was supposed to lift by 11:00 and we were scheduled to gather at the Rawie's for church and I needed ingredients to put together something for the potluck.  (We ended up having to cancel our homechurch.) Our mailbox, we couldn't see any cars, so we had to roll down the windows and listen.  I was already terrified at this point and didn't want to continue. After having to slam on his brakes multipl...
Read more

More Hats

Image
The Etsy shop is still a work in progress and unfortunately the name Over the Top is already taken.  I have been tossing around the names Tip Top and Whimsy.  I managed to get 7 hats made during the month of November.  I have a couple that I can put on Etsy when we are ready to list them and several Christmas hats made for the children.  I have been timing how long it takes me to make a hat and I am surprised (and not in a good way LOL) at the number of hours I spend.  A baby hat takes over 5-6 hours, a child's hat takes about 7-8 hours, and an adult hat 10 plus hours.  It takes even longer if I decide to tear out the stitching because it isn't looking the way I had imagined.  The more yarn variety I use, the longer it takes me to weave in the ends.  I usually spend over an hour just with a tapestry needle making all the ends secure.  Minimum wage plus materials puts the hats in the 50-80 dollar range.  Yikes!  I would never pay th...
Read more