August 3 Portland

Day 2 in Portland. There is nothing to do in Portland! We drove in search of a giant corn maze realizing too late that corn isn't full grown in August:( That was a sad realization.

 During our sad drive back to the hotel we got to see most of Portland, and had a mean hankering for some poutine. No one in Portland serves this as course, so we were left to our own devices. We stopped at a Safeway to get some cheese and gravy. They didn't have kurds, so we had to settle on chopping up cheese strings. We got the fries from Wendy's and used our in-room microwave to heat it all up. Not bad.


We were pretty tired as the previous weeks were catching up with us. We dozed a bit watching Shark Week before heading out to theatre to see Harry Potter 7 pt 2 in 3D.


On our way home from the theatre we were hungry again, and stopped at Giuseppe's Italian Restaurant. What a great find. The pizza was delicious! So many fresh toppings and a very tasty crust. Yum!

August 2 Mt Hood - Portland

We were sad to leave our site at Hood, but we had places to be! We drove to Mt. Hood, explored Hood River and the Columbia Gorge, and had a lot of fun at Horsetail Waterfall.

 

Hood River is ideal for kite and wind surfers, it's a quaint little town. We had a picnic there before heading to Gresham to find our hotel.

We had booked a hotel on hotwire for the next two nights to relax a bit and explore Portland. We picked a two star in Gresham and got the Days Inn. It was off the 84 on NE181st street, not the best neighborhood, but for $53 a night, it did us fine!! We made good use of the fridge, microwave and pool. Shay found a delicious restaurant for dinner called Chai Thai on Stark Street. Very tasty and worth visiting.

August 1 Bend - Mt Hood

We spent the morning at Elk Lake, and cooked spaghetti over the fire for lunch. Then we headed towards Bend, a gated community at the top of the cascades. A very beautiful town, just don't turn down the wrong street. Each subdivision has signs that read: residents only, and you'd have to pass through a surveillance booth and gate to enter. We continued north toward Mt. Hood. A storm was brewing...

 It was amazing how the landscaped changed from fields and snow capped mountains to weather eroded desert-like mountains. The Indian Reservation of Warm Springs was beautiful.

Driving through Warm Springs

Mt. Jefferson

Mt. Hood

 We drove up the 26 to Mount Hood National Forest. We camped at Hood Campground down by a nice lake. The site was huge! It was another self-serve site, however this time someone was supposed to come around and collect at night...he never came...

 We cooked an amazing pizza dinner over the fire and gazed up at the millions of stars that sparkled over the lake. We would have loved to stay here longer.

July 31 Klamath Falls - Crater Lake - Mt. Bachelor

Our site in the morning.

 

We headed out early so we had time to visit Crater Lake and do one of the Oregon Scenic Byways.

Driving through Oregon is amazing. There are mountains everywhere. And surprisingly still a lot of snow on the ground, despite the 25 degree weather.

We found our way to Crater Lake with ease. Breathtaking.

So much snow!

Can you spot the helicopter access only house??

We wanted to hike here, but there was still so much to see today. We found the markings for our scenic byway "Cascades", and started backwards. We drove through dormant lava flows that crushed through forests and lakes, quick moving rivers and mountains of course!

The Deschutes River

The perfect place for a swim. I had to hold onto a log to keep in the same spot, but it was quite refreshing on a hot day. We continued on our search for the perfect lake.

Mt. Bachelor

We found it at Elk Lake

 We found this day use beach at Elk Lake on the Cascade Scenic Byway drive. We noticed some RV's and tents across the lake, so we drove to check it out. There was a self-serve campground here called Point. You put your money in an envelope and into the box then set up in your spot. We found a beautiful spot, very buggy, but beautiful, and set up camp. We had to visit Lava Lake Lodge to get a few groceries for dinner. There is nothing else around for miles. We also had a chance to see the lake there. It did not compare to Elk Lake. The water was fresh and clean, and there is barely anyone here! Mind you our campground was full by the end of the night.

What we liked about Oregon, aside from the gorgeous scenery, were the plentiful campgrounds. These don't show up on web searches, but are very well labeled on the highways.