Day 10: Centrel Oregon
We woke up at 5:15 am to clear blue skies in Bend. 
It
only took 10 minutes to drive south to the Lava Lands Visitor Center. This did
not open until 9:30 so we contoinued for another four miles west to Benham
Falls. Wwe thought was a four mile hike to the falls, but when we looked
at books later at home it was actually .4. We decided to continue on as we did
not want to hike eight miles roundtrip. We got back on Highway 97 and drove
south one mile to the Lava
River Cave. Only having one flashlight we didn't go very far into this cave,
but it was easier to walk in than most caves. This is suppose to be the longest
uncollapsed lava tube in Oregon. I have also been here in the winter and it
is an erie atmosphere when no one is around.
We continued south on Highway 97 to Sunriver toward Mt. Bachelor
turning north on Forest Road 45 (Edison Ice Caves Road). We tried to find the
ice caves the road was named after with no luck. 
Then
we turned left (west) on the Cascade
Lakes Highway. First we stopped at Todd Lake (which used be called Lost
Lake) where there was a short trail along a creek taking us to a small lake.
Next we stopped at Sparks Lake which had a beautiful, distorted reflection of
the surrounding mountains. Devil's Lake and Mirror Lake required a 3-4 mile
hike to see and we did not go there. We also stopped at Elk Lake. Going toback
to Mt. Bachelor, we could still see
skiers from the parking lot still going down the mountain in late June. At the
gift shop they told us that would be skiing until July 5th. 
After that date they still take people up the lifts to see the view. The US
Ski Team was here to practice just last week. The lady at the giftshop said
the Edison Ice Caves were hard to find. On our way back we tried to find them
again by taking Forest Service Road 600, after a mile we turned back, realizing
we were probably too far south.
Going back to Highway 97 we continued south about 10 miles to
the Newberry
Crater-Paulina Lake & East Lake turnoff. 
We
realized after it was too late that we could have continued on the Cascade Lakes
Highway and cut over. This was a windy, paved 13 miles. We stopped at Paulina
Creek Falls, taking a short gradually descending path to the falls. There were
two different falls which flowed into a creek. Paulina Lake had a resort consisting
of a restaurant, cabins and a boat launch. We drove on to East and came to a
tollgate. They wanted $5 a carload to continue, so we turned back.
North on Highway 97 we took the Lava Cast Forest turnoff (this
is right across from the Sunriver/Mt. Bachelor turnoff). This was a 9 mile dirt
road. There is a circular one-mile trail around this area. We could not find
the brochures that went with the trail. 
About
halfway along the trail we realized that the cylinders we had been seeing that
looked like barbeque pits, were actually what remained of the trees in this
area when a volcano erupted 6,000 years ago. Most of these tree 'casts' were
2-3 feet wide and 3-4 feet high. There were some that lay on their sides, 8
feet+ long and large enough to crawl through. There were lots of large lava
rocks everywhere and short living trees that were probably much older than they
looked.
Around noon we went back north to Bend and stopped at KFC for chicken. One place we did go not to but would like to visit next time were in town is the High Desert Museum. We didn't have the time to go there today but it sounds like a good museum as it had live animals , sawmill, Native Indian collections and much more. We took 97 north to Redmond and 20 east to Sisters. This is a cute little tourist town with lots of shops. We walked around town for about an hour. Jacob went through a museum which was a combination of sports stuff, a doll colletion, an Elvis jacket, an Al Capone jacket, some western gun collection, . . It sounded like it was worth his dollar. We let the kids play in a park for a little while before we left around 1:00.
About
15 miles out of Madras I passed the Crooked River Gorge, which is a narrow 800
foot gorge with the river running through it. On the other side of the gorge
is the Peter Ogden Scenic State Wayside. This is a long narrow park following
the gorge for about a half-mile. Smith Rock State Park is where I would next
stop which is a canyon that has been formed by the Crooked River. It was nice
scenery and a good place to hike for the day as there are many trails. Rock
climbing is very popular here for the professional climber. There is a $3 charge
in the summer. South of here was the town of Redmond with 12,000 residents.
It has a lot of antique shops and reasonably priced hotels, with a couple streets
of business. Bend is the next town. I don't care to drive through this town
because there's always a traffic jam while trying to get thru town. 50,000 people
live here and there is also a college here. Bend reminds me of a suburb of Seattle.
There are many fast food places and businesses and everybody seems to be in
a rush to get somewhere.
I
continued east on 84 until reaching Dalles and then turned south on 197. This
takes me into flat farmland. I had just left an area that was surrounded by
tree, waterfalls, and the Columbia river. The area is also surrounded by Mt
Hood, Mt Adams & Mt St Helens. It is a nice place to farm with fertile land
and many recreational activities close by. Thirty miles south of Dalles was
the town of Maupin. This is located along the Deschutes River and their main
business seems to be rafting tours as there were about five businesses that
offered tours. A quiet town this Friday morning as I continue on. Madras is
the next farming town about thirty miles south and in the middle of nowhere.
They have a population of 4,000 and it takes you back into time when there were
small towns in the 50's and self-supporting communities. The closest large town
is Bend which is 50 miles away.
.