After settling into our camp site at the Valley of the Rogue State Park, we made plans for touring opportunities. One of these of course was to go to Crater Lake. We decided on Wednesday, since the weather in the whole area was perfectly clear and was supposed to remain so for a few days. All we could remember was our last attempt at a visit 20 years ago when we began in the rain and ended up in a full snow storm at the top with an actual white out (we never even saw the lake) We decided we would take no chances and would go as soon as possible. Although the weather was near or over 100 degrees at the campground on Wednesday, Crater Lake was a delightful 85 or so. The sky was clear, although it seemed there is a cover of haze over most of Oregon. Some of this is attributable to fires, some to dry weather and dust, but most I think to the impact we have on the planet with cars, industry, electricity generation, etc. It is a shame, there are no real clear blue skies up here that I have been able to find. But, it was still a very beautiful park. The water is clear and blue blue blue, even if my pictures do not faithfully reproduce the color.
It comes only from snow melt and no streams run into or out of the lake so it is considered by some as the cleanest water in the world. Crater Lake is 5 miles wide and ringed by cliffs 2000 feet high and is 1943 feet deep and is the deepest lake in the US and one of the deepest in the world. It is a caldera, the remains of the volcano Mt. Mazama that erupted and collapsed into itself over 7000 years ago. We drove the rim road from southwest corner to the north and back along the eastern edge. The drive took about 3 ours with all of the stops and pullouts to view the lake and the surrounding volcanic mountains. I, of course, got more pictures than a sane person should ever take, but as I have said before, digital cameras make everything so very easy. Enjoy them with us. The rest of our time in the area we just toured (you know- drove around and looked at things) enjoying the weather and the scenery and one day I actually stayed at the site and sewed. On one drive we ended up in the Applegate Valley Wine American Viticultural Area (AVA) and we were amazed that there are so many different wineries just in that area. Add to that the Rogue River AVA and you have hundreds of small wineries. We could have spent days in that area sampling the fruits, but decided the weather was too hot to spend much time consuming alcohol, so instead enjoyed the mountain drives. Another drive took us south on I-5 with plans to get off at one of the exits before the Siskiyou Summit, elevation 4310 feet, that takes you over to California. Instead we missed all of the exits we thought we wanted so ended up at the summit and found Old highway 99 S so drove it back down the mountain instead. Bet 99 was the original road between Ashland, Or and Yreka, CA in that area before the interstate. The old highway that comes down from the summit is steep, winding and very narrow and was a real surprise for us, but it was the kind we love to find when we end up exploring an unfamiliar area and don't know exactly where we are and where a road will take us. Some people would call that being lost, but lost to us means you have a destination and time in mind to arrive at that particular destination, neither of which apply to us so we just call our excursions exploring. Anyway, we explored the Rogue River Vally for 6 days and then headed northeast to relax (as though we needed more relaxation) along the Columbia River.
Sunday, July 19th, we drove north on I-5 to just short of Portland and then turned east on I-84. This was our real first driving on just interstates in this area and I have to say, if you want to pick a few that are gorgeous, these will both qualify. I-5 north from Grant's Pass is winding and goes up and down the mountains, loosely following the southern route of the Oregon Trail (called the Applegate Trail - imagine that). The scenery is serene and lovely, valleys and hilltops, farms and cabins. You can just imagine all of those pioneers in their wagons, or riding horses, driving animals, etc. The hardships they endured just to traverse those lands are unimaginable to me. I-84 on the other hand actually runs along the south side of the Columbia River Gorge and the scenery is wild and dramatic although again, the Oregon Trail was involved here too.
This drive took us to LePage Park (just east of Rufus, Or for you Atlas followers) which is situated at the confluence of the John Day River and the Columbia. The campground is about 1 mile east of the John Day Lock & Dam and is just south of the mouth of the John Day at Lake Umatilla. The Corp has both a day use area with boat dock and picnic tables as well as camp sites with water and electricity. It is a great water activity and fishing area, so we enjoyed boaters, jet skis, wave runners and fisher people for 8 days. It was hot, hot, hot (over 100 on many days) and the heat, although very dry, will still bake you given the slightest chance. Additionally, it was always (and I mean always) windy- some times so much so that we had to stay inside.
As you can see, we were really roughing it, with a site right on the water and a view of the bridges from our front porch, although you would need to be a mountain goat to get in and out of the water over the shore rocks. We hung out with little or no internet connections, reading, relaxing and of course, looking at old vehicles whenever we toured, oh and I sewed a few days too. The time spent there was delightful. The park is small and close, but most water activity based properties seem that way, so of course Bruce chatted with everyone one and learned most of their life stories. Cocktail time is always a good part of the day for gregarious gatherings. 
We did find a wonderful old GMC panel truck we would love to have had, but could not get the guy to consider parting with it- who knows, maybe next year. We did one nice drive along the Columbia east, crossed into Washington and rode up to the tri-cities (Pasco, Kennewick and Richland), did our Walmart shopping and then drove back along the Washington side of the Columbia on Highway 14.
I was surprised to see all of the grape vines growing in what appears to be desert mountains, but this is the home of Columbia Crest and many others. In fact, apparently the Columbia River Gorge area (from Portland to just east of The Dalles on both sides of the Gorge, Oregon & Washington) is its own AVA and there are many wineries. We did not stop at any, unfortunately, so I guess we will have to wait until next year to enjoy those particular pleasures. We did find an interesting artifact on that drive and went back the next day to take some pictures and spend some time since the previous day we had needed to get home to feed the animals so had not stayed. 
It is a replica of Stonehenge built by a local man, Sam Hill,in 1930 to commemorate the veterans from that area, Klickitat County, who died in WWI. He erroneously thought that the altar stone in the original Stonehenge had been used for human sacrifice so decided that a replica would be a good war memorial. It stands on a plateau above the Columbia River at Maryhill, WA (he named the city after his daughter Mary). Talk about unexpected sites.We are now in Montana. We decided to forgo Glacier this year (we were unhappy with all the people at Yellowstone so felt we would be just as unhappy with the park at St. Mary and glacier in the full summer) and instead are just driving over to the eastern part of the state to Ft. Peck. We hope to be able to get into the Corp park there early, even if we have to move because finding campgrounds out ere for the weekends that are not reserved and that will fit The Beast is not easy. We drove I-84 east to I-82 where we drove north to Richland and took US395 up to I-90 at Ritzville,WA. The one good thing about leaving when we did is that i got to see a herd of Bighorn Sheep grazing on the side of the mountain on I-84. I almost missed them as their coloring makes them look just like the mountain. Since there is no picture, you should assume of course that I was not fast enough to get things out and digitized before we flew past them and going back was not in the equation. At least I did get to see them and they are one of the 2 animals (the other being a bear and I am still waiting) that I wanted to see while we were out this way. We followed 90 east through Spokane and made it through Idaho to Montana and camped at Quartz Flat Campground about 25 miles west of Missoula, MT. Today, we continued through Missoula and then cut off I-90 on US12 E to Helena where we got on I-15 and went north to Great Falls. We left Great Falls on US 87N and are spending tonight in the Havre, MT on US 2 at the RV Campground at the fair grounds. The city is small and in the middle of the plains - we are definitely out of the Montana mountains that I can see and the wind will be our companion until we reach Ft. Peck. So- I am now up to date on our antics and whereabouts. I will post again once we get settled at the Downstream Recreation Area at Fort Peck Lake and Dam.
