Category: Cool Places
Places in Oregon to Check Out
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“A flat easy going trail, if you don’t mind the webs.”
On the westside of the Running Y Ranch, near Klamath Falls Oregon, is a trail used by hikers, bikers and equestrians. In fact at the trailhead is the equestrian center for the ranch.
It’s best to get an early start, especially in the summer. If you’re out early enough, you can come across plenty of birds and animals. The Red Tail Hawks and Bald Eagles are plentiful
This Bald Eagle was looking out over the lake for some breakfast
Wearing shorts turned out to be a bad idea because of all the webs everywhere, even in the middle of the trail.
and hiking sticks had a dual purpose here by keeping some of the webs off your shoes but believe me, there’s still plenty on your shoes.
Our Fitbits, Apple Watch and Oura ring all measured about 2-1/2 miles from the trailhead out to the lake, but you can see from our map, we didn’t stay on the main trail the whole way so it might be a little less than that.
At the end of the trail you break out into a large open area at the end of the peninsula. We flushed out some Egrets as we walked out.
Then we all posed for a Selfie to prove we made it. Not trying to make too much out of all the webs, but we expected the hike back to be less of them, since we collected so much on our sticks and shoes.
That wasn’t the case 🙂
Just a short drive into California from the Oregon border, these lava beds are great for spelunking through caves and hiking around the lava flows
We didn’t come all that prepared for spelunking but you can borrow flashlights and hard hats from the interpretive center. You can also buy equipment there but it’s best to come with your own gear
A very short walk from the visitor center is a short cave named the mushpot, if I recall correctly. It has nice paths created within and is all lit up so you don’t need a flashlight. Watch your head through
A lot of the caves have stairs and landings, making it easier to navigate, especially some of the deeper ones
Some have nearby parking while others are a bit of a hike in the heat.
You can also find some pictographs in some of the caves. It is quite the “destination” though, not a lot of places to grab a beer and burger, so be sure to pack a lunch.
We had to drive clear back into Merrill Oregon to find a place.
It’s not too difficult to find pics, or info of Crater Lake on the Internet but I need to record our Fall of 2022 trip there.
The air wasn’t the clearest this trip due to nearby forest fires, namely the Cedar Creek fire just to the north.
We drove down through Oakridge on the 7th of September. Our companions, Bill & Cindy, came down three days later and couldn’t come through Oakridge because areas of the town were being evacuated.
We circled the lake
Hiked the Pinnacles Trail, which is quite amazing.
And we stopped in at a closed campground
It was a fun day
A little ways north of Klamath Falls Oregon is a beautiful little lake named Lake of the Woods.
There’s a lodge with a full restaurant and bar, which serves up some excellent food.
You can also rent cabins, boats, SUPs and kayaks. Or just hang out
There’s plenty of fun things to do
We rented a party boat for 4 hours and toured around the lake
There’s a great little place to buy souvenirs
Or just sit out on the deck and have a beer 🍺 or two 🍺 🍺
We often load up the kayaks and head up river to the Cedaroak Boat Ramp in West Linn. It’s a real easy access for getting the boats in and out and if you go early, you don’t need to be concerned about parking.
Most of the time we like to head upstream for about an hour then return downstream. Sometimes, if the wind is blowing the wrong way, it doesn’t make much difference but typically in the early morning (before 9:00) the wind isn’t blowing and the water is like glass.
For this particular trip, we decided to head downstream first, to Hog Island, which takes about 45 minutes down and 45 back, at a leisurely pace anyway.
The boat ramp is really geared toward boats with trailers and, except for especially busy days, there’s plenty of parking if you have a trailer but with a single vehicle, your options are more sparse and you’ll get a ticket for parking a car in a trailer spot. One option is to paddle with friends and park two cars in one trailer spot. I’ve never heard of tickets for that, especially if you have kayak racks on top of the vehicles.
Going early has some real advantages, other than parking. The ski boats usually aren’t out yet, so the water is calm and the wildlife is all up getting breakfast.
We’ve seen many of Eagle snatching an early breakfast out of the Willamette and the Osprey are also very plentiful.
Deer, ducks, geese and herons are also abundant in the morning hours.
It’s quite the treat to see an Osprey snatch breakfast from the river to be instantly chased by a Bald Eagle who is either after their breakfast or just chasing them from their territory.