Oregon 2018. Sisters

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Oregon 2018. Sisters
Went for breakfast at 8 but slow service since it was a la carte. Away into a cool but sunny day at 9.30, after getting lunch provisions at the market by the restaurant since no food available at all on our route. Shortly after leaving the main road we were into the climb of over 20 miles which in my case took about 4 hours mostly in the shade of the forest cover. We saw one cyclist making the descent only to see him go back the other way as we were at the top - tough. I was surprised by the landscape at the top since it was volcanic crater created in the last 1900 years. We stopped at the observatory, which is a tower made of the local stone and at it’s summit has a pedestal showing the local land points, such as the Three Sisters, Black Butte and Mount Washington etc. Much if the upper reaches of the mountain had acres of burnt trees of varying severity. The descent was much the same but the damage came down almost into town. The descent of 15 miles or more was spectacular with the views of Mt Washington and all the Ponderosa Pine trees with their magnificent bark patterns which were highlighted by the sun since the forest had been thinned to let the light in. One had to be careful descending due to odd small holes in the road which made the bars rattle, caused maybe by snow clearing machines. Arriving at the Ponderosa Best Western Motel at 3.45pm no rooms were yet ready. It took until 5.10 before the last room was available - bringing back memories of Canyon in Yellowstone where I had to get stroppy to get our rooms on a wet cold day. The rooms are good and spacious but it was cold when we got in and the heating would not put any heat out. However it worked when we came in later from our meal at the Tokada Restaurant. The meal was very good and a pleasant time was had before retiring after another great day in Oregon.

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Photos

Ground Squirrel. .
At viewpoint

Coconut Shrimp dinner
Delicious

Comments

[Trevor Lingard]

Great photos
Amazing scenery Richard..that sounds one hell of a climb you all did. Stay safe guys.