Crater Lake

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Today we drove all the way from Prineville to Medford in Oregon. We saw a lot of beautiful pinetree forrests on the few hours drive we had. We did two main stops today. The first one was few miles south of Bend for the High Desert Museum. Our second stop was for few hours to explore some of the Crater Lake National Park scenery. Later on we made our way to Medford to our hotel. This would be our last full day in Oregon of a wonderful week on the roads of this beautiful state.

So our first stop today was the Museum of High Desert. The museum is lost few miles south of Bend, in a beautifil forrest. Here, we could discover further the native indian history, first settlers and cowboy history as well as a discovery of the flora and fauna of the cascades mountains and high plains.

The entry fee for a family of 4 is not cheap at 48usd, but we spent three very interesting hours in this place. The first part was an exhibition of Indian history and culture. It was wonderful for the kids to be able to learn more about the native americans and their old and current way of living.

The next part of the museum was about the first settlers. Those we often actually call in Europe the "cowboys". Here we discovered the history of the settlers, but also the fur trade, the gold rush, the cowboy way of life...wow, that was fun.

The museum has also a mini zoo inside it's complex. We saw lynx, bobcats, eagles, snakes, fishes, frogs and other rodents. To finish, we walked through the forrest and a settlers "village".

After this, we took the road to the South. Here, you can drive for hours without not much than beautiful forrest and peaks of snow. Our next stop, the Crater Lake National Park. It's only 10usd per car to enter the Natinal Park, nice and cheap family entertainement. As thoushad of daily tourists, we tour the crater lake. Snow was still around. The lake itself is said to be up to 600 meters deep....all of this is filled yearly by rain and melting snow and ice...but for us it was pure sun all day long.

We than made our way to Medford. Stay next to the airport so nothing much to comment about Medford. Well, we also stocked for the "back to school time". You remember, no sales taxes herein Oregon! So Walmart for lunch boxes, and Old Navy for more children clothes....

This was our last day in beautiful Oregon. As you may know, I'm already writing this from back home in Bangkok. It feels good to be back home! Our next few entries will be for California. I may not move for the next three weeks, but I have a lot more blogs to sort out...

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