Crater Lake National Park, Chiloquin, La Pine, and Bend, Oregon

We left the Potato processing plant and the small town of Malin, Oregon and drove about an hour to Chiloquin, Oregon.  We were hosted by a couple on their property and got parked among the Ponderosa Pine trees. 

 

Our main reason for this stop was to visit Crater Lake National Park.  It was a park on my bucket list and finally we had a chance to check it out.  We drove about 45 minutes to Crater Lake National Park.  As we approached the park there was more and more snow visible on the sides of the road.  By the time we arrived at the park there was a lot of snow at the Gift Shop and Hotel area.  We did a walk along what would have been a sidewalk but it was covered with snow.  The view of the lake was just beautiful!  We worked on another Junior Ranger badge while at the park.  Not much of the park was open and most of the roads were closed due to snow but what we saw was beautiful!

The sun and clouds and wind were in and out during our time at the park so the view could change and the reflection in the lake when the winds were calm was spectacular!

 

 

We next made our way to La Pine, Oregon for five nights staying on a Boondockers Welcome property.  The couple were away but let us stay on their property.  Their son was doing some work on their house while they were gone so he was there to keep an eye on things.  They even had water and electric for us to hook up to and didn't want any money from us.  We left some anyway.  It's amazing how kind people are! 

 

 

 

While we were at this location we walked around the neighborhood and did some hikes on a forest service road.  It was so nice being in this peaceful place among the tall pine trees.  

We also drove a short distance and did a hike along Fallen Tree river.  

 

Our next stop was a Thousand Trails campground in La Pine, Oregon called Sunriver.  At this park we had to dump our tanks before finding a site.  It was a rainy day when we arrived but we found a nice site among the pine trees.

The park was along the Little Deschutes River.  It was nice but the pools were under "renovation." but it didn't look like much work was being done.  Glad it was too cold to go for a swim.

Our friends, Patty & Lenny live about an hour away in Prineville, Oregon so we made plans to see them while in the area.  They also volunteer at Sunshine Acres Children's Home with us over the winter and that is where we met in 2020.   

We met them for church on a Sunday and then we went back to their house where Patty cooked us a nice breakfast.  

After breakfast they took for a drive around town and over to Prineville Reservoir which was at a very low water level.  It was also very windy!

They also took us to see Smith Rock State Park.

Another day we drove the Cascade Lakes Hwy.  The weather wasn't great so we didn't make many stops.  It was snowing some while we were in the higher elevation areas closer to Mt. Bachelor.  We had a ride withseveral different conditions along this scenic drive.

We got together with Patty & Lenny one more day when we met them at Hola Peruvian/Mexican restaurant in the Old Mill District in Bend.  After lunch we went for a nice walk along the Deschutes River.

We could not get a good enough view of this bird to identify it.

It was a beautiful day and we had a nice visit with Patty & Lenny on their turf in Bend, Oregon.  

We had a nice time visiting some areas of Oregon and getting to Crater Lake and visiting with Patty & Lenny. 

 Here is the ground we covered in this blog entry. 

Next we're headed to visit more friends in Oregon.