It took less than 2 hours to get from Crater Lake to Sunriver, and we were greeted at the rental house by these guys.
Uncle Garrett and his niece :-)
Little cutie pie!
On a walk to the Deschutes River.
Keira and Aunt Mandy
The Deschutes.
Clint fishing on the coldest morning of the trip.
Thursday morning it was time to say goodbye to mom, dad, Mandy, and lil' Embers. They headed North to Portland, and we headed South and East to the Christmas Valley area with these folks. This is the tiny town of Silver Lake. Not much to see, but I thought this old motel sign was cool.
Our campsite for the next two days...Duncan Reservoir. Not the campsite we had originally been looking for, but turned out to be cool anyway!
My sister from another mister :-)
Bri and her fishing rod she made...it looked pretty good for being made out of sticks and grass!
These guys were all over the place, and in all different colors! I'd never seen red ones before.
Clint, the four-armed fisherman.
Gotta love sunsets in the desert!
Friday we set out to explore Crack-In-The-Ground and Derrick Cave. Crack-In-The-Ground has one of the most un-creative names I've ever heard, and is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. It was almost other-worldly, like we were delving into the depths of the earth or something. The Lord Of The Rings was referenced many times during the hike through the crack :-) Very, very cool.
Eating lunch while trying to figure out where Derrick Cave was.
After quite a bit of driving, we finally found Derrick Cave. And look what else was there, a bomb shelter! I was sorta hoping to find some old hoarded supplies or maybe even some bones...but alas, it was empty. It was still a little creepy.
The beginning of Derrick Cave.
Playing with rays.
Garrett and Keira coming into the dark part of the cave with a green light. It's blurry, but I thought it looked cool and Keira looks kinda ghostly :-)
The ceiling of the cave. Such pretty colors!
Saturday morning, after a delicious breakfast of 'rare' toast with some peanut butter and homemade jelly, we said goodbye to the Sanitarium dwellers and headed home. At the end of the dirt road leading out of the campsite, we had a choice to make...turn left or right on Hwy 31? Left would lead us to the 97 and eventually to the 5, also known as the most boring freeway through California. So, I suggested we go Right. Right would take us to the 395, a route neither of us had taken before. We had to stop in Tehachapi on our way home to pick up our dogs, so it made sense to take a scenic drive that would lead us pretty much straight to where we needed to go. If you have the time I highly recommend taking this route instead of I-5. The scenery is just beautiful! These next two were taken with the window rolled down. I'm sorry now that I didn't take more this way.
Back in Tehachapi. Oh Shasta, she is so cute! We were happy to see our doggies again.
We saw some really cool stuff this trip, but my favorite part was getting to be with my family for longer than just a weekend...especially with 3 of my wonderful nieces :-)
Great pictures! So fun to see them all again. We'd love to visit Crater Lake and perhaps some other places such as Crack-In-the-Ground and what have you someday. ;)
ReplyDeleteThose pictures are amazing! The sunset was so beautiful :0 The cave with the light coming through made for the best pictures, the girls looked like little angels :)
ReplyDeleteCool! That was SO fun... so, Moab next year?! :-)
ReplyDeleteLove your motel pic--I don't even recall that sign. Glad you caught it!
We didn't take any pics on the way home, and I'm SO annoyed about that now. It was an amazing drive, and I can't wait to do it again sometime. All 11 hours of it, haha.