Crater Lake NP, Portland, NW Coast

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Portland, Oregon

Day 18 – July 27

It was a very hot day…unusually hot for Portland, Oregon.  We had breakfast at our native Oregonian friend Jeff’s house and just chilled in the morning. Late morning, Jeff took us on a car tour of Portland. A highlight was touring Washington Park and the beautiful and expansive public Portland Rose Garden there. The flowers were bursting with color and the gardens are cast against a panoramic view of the city below in the background. We walked around for about 20 minutes taking in the color and the smell of the roses, and the view. Then we headed to the awesome Oregon Brewers Festival at Waterfront Park downtown Portland. Much of it was under very large tents along the Willamette River…it looked like Boston’s esplanade along the Charles River. It was crowded but not too bad, and there was a great variety of craft beers. After taking in plenty of beer and eating some antacid chasing beer fest food at a table along the river,  and some cooling off at a misting station, I drove us back to Jeff’s house as I was the closest thing to a designated driver (I am the wine drinker, Em is the beer drinker). Then we had a BBQ in Jeff’s backyard with several of his friends. We also toured Jeff’s legal marijuana greenhouse in his yard, quite aromatic.

Timberline Lodge & Multnomah Falls

Day 19 – July 28

We got in the car after a good breakfast at the house and headed to Mt. Hood, about 90 minutes from the city. We got some great views of Mt. Hood as we approached.

Once there we hung out a bit at the base of the mountain at the impressive and grand historic landmark, Timberline Lodge. Built during the depression the lodge provides fantastic views of Mt. Hood and other peaks.

Jeff didn’t have too much time so we didn’t do the drive up Mt. Hood. We watched skiers (yes, that’s right, skiers in July!) in the distance on Mt. Hood as we sat in chairs on the ritzy stone deck of the lodge.  We also walked by the part of the hotel on the grounds that was the back side of the house in the movie “The Shining”.

(We later see the front side of “The Shining” hotel at Rocky Mtn. National park in Colorado!). We then went to Hood River, the town, and had a great lunch and beers at the Double Mountain Brewery taproom along Hood River, the river.

On the way back to Portland we stopped at Multnomah Falls, the largest waterfall in Oregon at over 600 feet. This is simply gorgeous, and very popular, so it was crowded. We walked the walkway up to the landing at mid-level. Very lush and rainforest-like all around the path and an impressive waterfall.  Well worth the stopover. Next time we come here we will do the hike to the top of the falls. We took a photo in front of the “Multnomah Falls” sign, and this turned out to be the last photo ever taken of my original wedding band (See Day 21).

Jeff (a Realtor) had to show a house to a client so when back in Portland Em and I went to a nice downtown Portland restaurant that he recommended, Caffe Mingo. We ate at a sidewalk table and Jeff joined us after a short while. It was a beautiful night for a sidewalk gourmet meal. The Italian food was outstanding. Back at Jeff’s we finished the night in his back yard playing disc golf.

Clackamas River

Day 20 – July 29

Breakfast at Jeff’s. Spent some time in the morning with Jeff playing some disc golf again. Then we got on our way to spend a couple of days with our friend Robert who also now lives in Portland. First, I got a haircut at a really cheap barber shop near Jeff’s house. Then on to Robert’s house which is about 20 minutes from Jeff’s on the other side of Portland. We set off for the Clackamas River to do some kayaking. This is the closest whitewater river to Portland.  We took two cars, one for launch, and one for pick-up at the other end of the trip. There was plenty of parking for the first car at the launch site, but finding parking for the second car at the pick-up point was difficult to find. Fortunately, Rob had a friend nearby so we parked in her driveway. Rob had inflatable kayaks for each of us.  Before we actually started paddling, Rob dropped his cell phone in the water at the launch site, about 4 feet deep. Somehow, miraculously, he found it…a miracle! On to kayaking, with Rob’s dog in his kayak with him. It was a long kayak ride on a fairly crowded river. We stopped a couple of times along the shore to swim and have a drink. The water was refreshing, as it was very hot out. There were several very shallow spots where we had to get out of the kayaks, in the middle of the river and drag them off the river bottom. We hit our butts several times, and that was pretty painful. But there were also some very fun small rapids that even we novices could navigate.

It was a few hours on the water and we had all worked up a good appetite. We had a great pasta dinner at Rob’s house, with his awesome homemade sauce.  Off to bed.

Oregon Coast

Day 21 – July 30

Robert cooked us a nice breakfast. Then we all got into his truck and headed to the coast. Along the way we detoured to Salem to visit the Capitol building and the beautiful sequoia trees on the grounds of Willamette University.

It was here that I noticed my wedding ring was missing. It must have been lost in the river the day before while kayaking. Lost forever…bummer. We got to the beach around lunch time and so had an outdoor lunch at Tiki’s in Lincoln City before venturing. Tikis was a fun place but unfortunately it has since closed.

We then walked to the beach from there, but decided to go to a beach elsewhere. We ended up beaching it at Gleneden Beach. Not crowded at all, and had a nice spot. We tossed some disc and we went into the very cold water up to our shins. There is a very beautiful rocky coastline. Rob then took us to an off the beaten path ocean access spot further up the road at Depoe Bay (off of Fishing Rock Street). This was a spectacular stop. Off the parking area, we walked through a lush, tree canopied path to some cliffs overlooking the beach below. We traversed the rocks atop the cliffs, some death defying over the rough, crashing ocean below us. We got wet from the waves crashing along the massive rocks below. Waves run beneath the lava rock creating spouting geysers high up into the air. This was a highlight of our Portland stay.

On the trip back to Rob’s house we again stopped in Salem and had dinner at a sidewalk table of The Kitchen restaurant. Then back to Robert’s house and off to bed before our trek toward Crater Lake the following morning.

Willamette Valley to Crater Lake

Day 22 – July 31

Drove 250 miles

Breakfast at Rob’s house in Portland, and then off towards Crater Lake around 10:00 a.m. We stopped at the Joseph Drouhin vineyard and the Vista Hills vineyard in the Willamette Valley, south of Portland. The valley is known as one of the top Pinot Noir regions in the country, and we just could NOT drive through without trying some. We did a wine flight at each vineyard’s tasting room. Excellent Pinot Noirs, and first class tasting rooms and views of the vineyards. We bought a bottle of Piedmont at Vista Hills.

On the way back to the highway we stopped at one more vineyard just to sit on their lawn chairs overlooking the valley…gorgeous vista! We were lucky to nab chairs.

 

We ripped ourselves away from the beautiful vineyards of Willamette and eventually got to the Crater Lake area around 6:30 p.m. We had no plans for lodging and so we ended up taking Jeff’s recommendation and camped at the Diamond Lake campground, which is about 20 minutes from Crater Lake. We squatted in a site we found since there was no campground attendant at the entrance. We pitched the tent around 7:30 p.m. Nice campsite within eye shot of Diamond Lake and an easy walk along a path in the woods to the rest room. We spent the evening drinking the Villa Vista wine by the fire and looking at the clear night sky chock full of stars.

Off to bed.

Crater Lake National Park

Day 23 – Aug 1

We woke up in a very cold tent of 39 degrees! We did not know it was going to get that cold and so did not have all the blankets in the tent. It’s a good thing we like each other. Up at 7:00 a.m. for some campfire coffee and instant breakfast and then off to Crater Lake National Park. First we stopped at the Diamond Lake campground office to secure our site for one more night. Arriving at Crater Lake National Park we first went to the Crater Lake Lodge since our first trailhead was from there. This was a very posh lodge with a grand terrace overlooking Crater Lake. We sat on the terrace for a couple of minutes to take in the magnificence. The lake is a deep, blazing cobalt blue, and it lies within an obvious massive crater, just an amazing feast for the eyes. One could easily sit there for hours.

We pulled away and began the Garfield Peak Trail hike, with its trailhead about 100 yards away. This is a somewhat steep and rocky 3.4 mile round trip hike to an awesome ridgeline peak overlooking the lake on one side and the National Forest on the other. We got our first view of the Phantom Ship rock formation in the lake from here. Very clear day with amazing vistas…the deep cobalt blue of the lake is like nothing we have seen. Truly captivating and surreal. We sat at the crater ridgeline for a snack with the views. A chipmunk was attracted to our food wrapper cracklings…very cute. We also saw a hoary marmot on the trail. Though we were the first ones on this trail in the morning there were now about a dozen people on the ridgeline with us.

There was a fire off of West Rim Drive which we saw the smoke from, and we saw dozens of firefighting vehicles and firefighters along the road, but it had no impact to Crater Lake and hiking trails at this point.

 

After this Garfield Peak Trail hike we inquired at the lodge about boat tours to Wizard Island in the middle of the lake for a hike there but found no availability, then we walked about 200 yards to the visitor’s center at Rim Village. Got some souvenirs and read some placards along the way.

We then drove to the very short Castle Crest Wildflower Trail loop which featured some very nice wildflowers, streams and firs. We had a gourmet lunch of pb&j at the trailhead before the hike. Back in the car to drive the 33 mile Rim Drive Loop around the lake to stop at overlooks and find two more hikes on our agenda. First stop was Watchman Peak Trail. This was a 1.4 mile, fairly steep and rocky hike up to an old fire tower with commanding views.

From here we also watched planes and helicopters fighting the now much larger forest fire. Smoke was now quite expansive over the west rim drive and drifting over Crater Lake. One plane swooped so low above us that Emilie thought it was crashing into us….it truly was scary.

We stopped to actually watch as a few trees in the distance went up in flames like matchsticks. We hiked down, and strategized our next move to try to avoid being impacted by the fire, like with road or trail closures. We drove the long way around Rim Drive to complete the loop toward Cleetwood Cove trail which is supposed to lead to the only place possible to get into the lake for a swim. Along the way we stopped at overlooks of close-up views of the Phantom Ship rock formation, and the highest paved road in Oregon, Cloudcap Overlook. At Cloudcap the smoke from the fire created an eclipse like effect on the sun, and reflected a beautiful amber glow in the lake.

Then on to our final stop at Crater Lake. Cleetwood Cove Trail is a steep 1.2 mile hike (each way) down to the water. This is primarily a switchback trail with steep grade elevation to get down to the shore of the lake. It led to the boat tour dock and the only legal access point to the water shore. Once there we found some people swimming about 100 yards from the boat docks. There were no beaches, just large craggy rocks to navigate out into the water or to jump from. Emilie put her feet in the water from a perched rock. I changed into my swimming trunks in the restroom there and went for a swim. It was difficult to find the best place to get in. I could have jumped from a perch about 15 feet high, but nobody else was doing that so I followed another route where I could slide off of a rock at water level.

The water was cold but reasonable enough to actually swim instead of just jumping in and out (like at Glacier NP!). The water was very refreshing and clean. The most memorable thing for me was seeing that the water remains consistently deep cobalt blue under the water, and was just as surreal as it was from viewing atop the crater.

We chatted with a young couple from England. After about 30 minutes hanging by the water we trekked back up the steep trail. Very few people were around at this point, which was about 7:00 p.m. The hike up was very tough given it was the end of a busy day for us. We got in our car at the lot by the trailhead and saw a sign indicating that part of the West Rim Drive was now closed due to the fire. Our timing was excellent. We stopped at a local store / pizza shop near Diamond Lake to pick up some supplies, and a pizza to eat at the campsite.  We ate, had a beer, and warmed up by the fire as it was getting a little chilly. Off to bed. We prepared better this night for overnight temps in the 30s and slept well.

Next: John Day Fossil Beds and Craters of the Moon National Monuments