Crater Lake August 28 & 29, 2013

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I think we mentioned before that we prefer not to travel the Interstate Highways, and instead try to find nice scenic routes along secondary roads. By traveling this way, it takes us longer to get to our destination, but we have some interesting experiences.

Traveling this way also means that the Liberty Hot Spot we purchased from Roam Mobility in order to have WIFI anywhere along the way without exorbitant roaming charges, was not as helpful as expected. On main routes, we could connect to the internet while driving down the road. On side roads, not so much. The jury is out on its usefulness given our preferred travel routes. They don’t seem to have an agreement with AT&T, which has had cell service just about everywhere so far.

Leaving Madras, Oregon we carried on through central Oregon with Richard thinking about finding a good homemade peach pie. As we passed through Bend, it occurred to Kayla that somewhere on this trip, we might find a Trader Joe’s where she could buy her favourite peanut butter filled pretzels. Just as she was mentioning this, we passed a Trader Joe’s. Talk about luck! It took some time to backtrack and find it, but she left supplied with several bags of the pretzels. Richard left empty-handed. There was no peach pie to be had at Trader Joe’s. The search for peach pie continues.

We had searched for an RV campground online, and found one called Crater Lake Resort at Fort Klamath, off the beaten track in a lovely rural area south of Crater Lake National Park. The folks were very friendly on the phone, and just as welcoming when we arrived. Despite its pretentious-sounding name, this is a family run small campground, with just eight sites, all on the lovely creek that runs through the property, with free use of their canoes. The first night, we camped next to two couples in a rented Cruise America motor home, on their way to Burning Man in Nevada.



Crater Lake was everything we expected and more. We spent a day on the Rim Drive, stopping along the way for short walks, one hike along the rim, rock hounding and tons of photographs. It was a warm, blue-sky day with nice puffy white clouds blowing in and out.

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