Trip Journal: Day 2 We're Off to See Crater Lake...

Sunday, September 11th

I took this panorama with my phone. 

After a good night's sleep at the La Quinta Inn, I ate the hotel breakfast while watching TV coverage of memorials being held in remembrance of the Terrorist Attacks on the World Trade Center. We fell naturally into the pattern Wayne and Amy use when they stay at a hotel. I got up, showered and dressed and went to breakfast while Wayne showered and dressed. Then he went to breakfast and I packed my things. His packing went quickly-he brings a lot less stuff into the hotel than I do- and we got on our way by about 8. It was a late start compared to some, but we were on vacation, (From OUR PROBLEMS!) and agreed that enough sleep was preferable to an early start. I always sleep badly the first night out and was actually awake early, but liked the time to just rest. Wayne woke somewhat early also, he was still not on Pacific time, but I think he may have fallen back to sleep. He was tired.

Our plan was to go south on I-5, searching the church website on my phone looking for a compatible time and place where we could go to church. I think we stopped in Sutherlin  where we attended Sacrament meeting only. We were warmly welcomed there by a number of people and we enjoyed the spiritual lift of worshiping with them.

We then headed to the North Umpqua Highway where we stopped at Colliding Rivers state park, the first of the stops from the suggested stops on the Rogue River/Umpqua (Ump as in umpire, I didn't realize it could be mispronounced until Wayne kept referring to it as Oompqua-but I soon had him speaking like a native) scenic drive from Wayne's research. We didn't take photos there because the water was low and the rivers were not exactly colliding, but we enjoyed seeing where the rivers come together with a violent clash when the water is higher.

We were hungry by then and found some picnic tables at the nearby North Umpqua Ranger Station and broke out our first picnic lunch. Our yummy choices from the day before, coupled with a warm day and blue skies made this first picnic an enjoyable precedent to lunches to come in the following days. In fact, we had blue skies almost the entire trip, except for the final day when we were heading home. We managed to hit it just right on timing, after the initial rainy September weather and into the frequent Indian Summer days we have later in September and some of October. We felt very blessed.

We were a bit behind schedule, and we had seen some wonderful waterfalls the day before, so we skipped some of the stops on the scenic highway and just enjoyed the scenery as we drove. We also enjoyed one another's company. One great thing about a road trip with someone you love, get along well with, but don't see too often, is that there is plenty of time to talk, and talking makes the miles go quickly. Wayne made the point as we chatted that when he and Amy travel they don't talk as much as we did, but that is because they already know all the day to day things about each other, whereas we were catching up all those little things. It was a delight for me to just have long uninterrupted time to talk with him. So often there are others around when we see each other and activities going on so that we don't get a lot of one on one time to catch up and visit.

Wayne was ecstatic with the scenery, which was both beautiful and interesting as we wound through hills, crested mountain passes and cruised along beside rushing rivers. He had been 'homesick' for scenes of western beauty, similar to Colorado and northern Idaho and hadn't expected to see that type of country on this trip necessarily, but we were driving into the midst of it, and he was in heaven.

We did finally make a stop at the trail head to a hike to Tokeete Falls, a unique spot where there is a 50 year old redwood plank aqueduct, a completely circular tube that is moss encrusted and springing leaks all over the place with drips and sprays, but still full of water being delivered to a hydroelectric plant. We spent a comfortable amount of time taking photos of sun shining through sprays of water and patterns of planks and greenery.

Redwood aqueduct taking water to the Umpqua electric plant 

One of many leaks

Water shooting out of the top of the pipeline

A spray of water in the sunlight

Reflection in water ditch running under the aqueduct 

Redwood boards held together by metal bands, festooned with moss

After this stop we continued towards Crater lake, enjoying the scenery and views some more. We arrived at the rim in Crater lake close to 5 pm. I was nervous about getting down to the campground to secure a campsite, but stopping to see the view after all our anticipation was irresistible. 

Wayne took a shot of me in awe at the view. 

It was cold and very windy and we were glad for our jackets, but the view made us glad to brave the wind. We became quiet as we moved around with our cameras finding the shots we wanted to capture. By the previous shot I had turned the Canon SLR over to Wayne, He brought a small waterproof camera, figuring I'd bring a good one, and fortunately I brought both the Canon and my Samsung smaller camera, both good cameras for the shooting we were doing. Since this was his bucket list trip and I had seen Crater Lake before I was glad to let him take the better camera. He used it from the aqueduct for most of the rest of the trip. The photos on this page are a mix of his and mine. One thing I forgot to tell him was that I had put a polarizing filter on the camera. He was not aware of the filter or how to use it to adjust the colors in this type of photo. He had fun playing with it the next day. 

One of mine

Another one of mine

Wayne framing up a good view

Another one by Wayne. I need to clean up the corners to make it perfect. 

We made a brief stop at the lodge on our way to the Mazama campground to see if we could get dinner reservations. I was still concerned about getting a camping spot since it was so late in the day and there were only a few spots not reserved and available on a first come first served basis. Wayne wasn't worried though, since he can always get a spot at the Smoky Mountain campgrounds after labor day and that is the most visited park in the country. 

We weren't able to get a dinner reservation but Wayne made one for the next day for dinner with a plan to have lunch instead if possible. Then we headed for the campground. It would be a cold night, the forecast was for the low 30's overnight. I hoped we had enough warmth with our extra blankets to add to our sleeping bags to be comfortable and that I wouldn't have to get up during the night to go to the bathroom..!

Jo's Motel and Organic food store

When we got there it was 6 pm, so we were sliding into the last moment to pitch camp, fix dinner and clean up before dark. It turned out that there were no open spaces. We debated about going to the snow park sites to camp in the woods without bathrooms or any other amenity, or about going farther out to find a forest service campground. I wanted to find out where the motel was 6 miles from the lower park entrance, but we had no phone coverage and I hadn't put the address in my phone, thinking we would connect when we were there if we needed to. The employees of the franchise that runs the Mazama and Lodge venues are all from eastern Europe and not only did not know the area, but barely spoke English and didn't even understand my questions. The campground receptionist was local though and we were able to find out from her that the motel was in Klamath Falls and which road to take to find it. 

Rooms each have their own garage and front and back doors

Since my phone uses GPS I was able to navigate us to it even without phone service. I love smart phones. We got to Jo's Motel just before she closed for the night and were able to get a room. It was identical to the one Harry and I stayed at when we were there, except the kitchen was locked up and apparently unusable. We were going to cook our dinner, but settled for another picnic lunch, with Wayne heating up his leftovers from Multnoma Falls Lodge the night before. This motel has changed little since the 40s or so when it was built, but it has that retro charm to it. The only drawback is the hard beds and we didn't think to bring in our sleeping pads to fix that, so Wayne had an uncomfortable night. 

Jo, the owner, is the only business in this little wide spot in the road and also runs an organic, whole foods store. She came out in a tie dye shirt, the epitome of a '60s hippy. I love how the store smells of  herbal soaps like any good whole foods place. I remembered from last time how I loved the little soaps and shampoos she supplies in the bathroom and the eclectic mix of big fluffy towels and washcloths, all different colors and none of them from a hotel supply. She had tons of DVDs and players to make up for no cable, but we passed, knowing we were going to want to talk or play games and sleep and not watch movies. 

Our river bend the next morning

She mentioned that there was a walk behind the place to a bend in the river, so once we'd settled in a bit we headed out to see what it was about before it got dark. We went through a small back yard, between cabins and RVs in her camping area, and across a meadow via a path mowed in the grass. We met a family coming out who had just had a cook out down by the river. We passed charming walk-in tent camping spots nestled in among the trees. They were the most charming camping spots I've seen in a long time, maybe ever. When we reached the river we sat on the benches of one of the picnic tables and soaked in the quiet and enjoyed the flow of the river rounding the bend and moving past us. through grassy banks and around gravelly sand bars. We could hear the lowing of cattle and roosters crowing. There was a nearby barn looming in shadow beyond the bend in the river. I speculated that this might be one of the dark places in the country where we could really see the stars, but only if the moon overhead would go down. We decided to come back after dark and see. 

After eating our dinner back in the room we got the camp chairs and flashlights and headed back. It was so nice sitting in the stillness with the river rippling nearby, talking quietly, sitting quietly and enjoying the peace. Wayne showed me the constellations that became visible, though the light of moon hid the full grandeur of the sky. His long time hobby of astronomy always enriches our night time sky viewing. We were glad not to be bothered by any biting insects so that we didn't need to put on bug spray.  

When we eventually headed back to the room we were too tired to play games or talk any further. We each had our own bedroom and I took the back room, leaving him the bigger bed in the living room, which would let him get up and move around if he woke early. It would have been even better if I had left some food in his area. I had the room with the table and chairs so I had organized all the food in there.