As promised, Terry and I returned to the head rock with pedestrian tunnel in Oceanside, OR. And yes we both made it through, as the photo testifies. We enjoyed the private beach at the end of the tunnel. Our thanks to the Rosenberg family who started digging it in 1926 just so they could enjoy that beach! On our road trip by car we discovered the Sea Lion Caves between Florence and Newport. We descended 200 feet by elevator to watch what appeared to be 200 sea lions on a rock roaring loud enough to be heard a mile away. We [View Full Entry]

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I’m composing this first blog entry sitting on the window seat in our room at the Crater Lake Lodge, watching dusk arrive. The sky above the rim of the lake is tinged with pink and the normally vivid blue water has turned a steely gray. We just came up to our room from enjoying a glass of Tolosa Pinot and watching the changing light from the rocking chairs which line the patio behind the Lodge… Sounds so slow and peaceful, right? But of course that impression betrays the pace and the ups and downs (mostly ups) of the past three days. [View Full Entry]

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Crater Lake National Park is a fascinating place. The whole area is part of the Pacific circle if fire, there are loads of volcanoes around, all inactive at least for the moment. Crater lake lies inside a volcanic basin (caldera) and was created when Mount Mazama collapsed 7 700 years ago following an eruption. There is a lake in the crater, very deep with beautiful blue water. As you will see on the pictures, a second smaller volcano showed up inside the 'old' crater and has itself a crater. The region is beautiful and we manged to do some nice hikes; [View Full Entry]

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On our way to see our friends in Oregon, we drove over to Crater Lake National Park. Many years have passed since I first saw this magnificent lake from an airplane, a worthy rival to Lake Tahoe, Lake Lucerne, Lake Geneva, and Lake Titicaca. Crater Lake National Park was formed by strong volcanic activity. We are in Southern Oregon, in the Cascade Mountain range, about 100 miles east of the Pacific Ocean. The massive 553 inches of snow annually, supply this lake with water. And unbelievably, there are not inlets or outlets to this Lake. It is the seventh deepest lake [View Full Entry]

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Crater Lake was our first camping experience without men. No Juan Rambo to wake us with hot coffee and a brush up with mountain lion/bear survival skills. No Texas Red and splitting a bottle of wine three ways--the bottle was up to us this time. Building a fire was all ours. Scaring the bears with the manliest and growliest yawps we could muster was our task alone. Juan Rambo told us and we quote, "What I like to do is pick up a large boulder and then smash it because it makes a lot of noise." Umm. Thanks Juan Rambo, but [View Full Entry]

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July 24th Crater Lake, OR We woke up early and we didn't have much to do to get our day started as we had slept in the parking lot of the National Park. We got our money back and some coffee to go and headed off to see Crater Lake. We had to make it to the trailhead to hike down to the lake to take the boat tour. We stopped at a few lookouts to get our first look at Crater Lake. We were not dissapointed. It is spectacular. It is such a vivid blue it looks llike someone poured [View Full Entry]

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Our drive through eastern Oregon to Crater Lake gave a full impression of the hardships that lined the original Oregon Trail. Even today in 2009 the state is made very difficult to navigate through due to lack of signs, constant road work, and rollercoaster roads. The most shocking thing was the change from desert to volcano to near-rainforest weather. The moisture in the air went from non-existent to oppressive. When we approached the park office pay-$10-booth at Crater Lake and I asked if there was camping, I was given a mysterious non-committal response and told there was road work caus [View Full Entry]

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Ann and I embarked on our 10-day loop tour of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon on Friday, June 26. We visited the Okanagan Valley to enjoy some wine tasting and purchased more than we were supposed to for our later US border crossing. We continued on to Nelson where they were holding an after work festival in honour of our arrival. We stayed at a fantastic B&B called the Cloudside Inn, which was run by two travel- and photo-savvy owners. The next day, we attended Erin and Kris’ wedding. Erin and I went to UBC together over a decade ago. And [View Full Entry]

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We had so much fun taking the kids to Crater Lake, Oregon and we have decided that we are going to make this a yearly trip. There is so much to do and it is very relaxing. We got a late start yesterday. Jon did not get home until 4:15 and we got out the door at 4:30 om. I had everything all packed and ready to go and we were all very impatient to get there and were very glad when he got home. I had finished all laundry, cleaned the entire house from top to bottom, weeded, cleaned the [View Full Entry]

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Drove to Crater Lake today. Beautiful Blue lake in the top of a volcano cone. Believe it or not, about two thirds of the drive around the lake was closed because of snow, but what I was able to see was really cool. Going to take a leisurely drive up the Oregon coast tomorrow and will be spending the night and the next day in a hostel on the norther Oregon coast. [View Full Entry]

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