Since snow has closed the the Rim Drive until late July and there are only a couple of places to photograph Crater Lake, we decided to stay only one night and head to Bend, Oregon. When I thought I would be laid off, we thought we were going to have lots of extra time to explore new areas. We added Bend to the itinerary so we could check out the waterfalls and the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway. Since we now had an extra day, we decided to at least see some of the Bend area.
Before leaving Crater Lake, we photographed for a couple hours behind the lodge and in the area near the rim visitor center. The area near the visitor center had lots of families and everyone was having a good time. Watching the families trying to get everyone together for a group shot was very entertaining. The extended family from Hawaii was especially entertaining. While we were shooting, we heard one of the grandparents remarking about the "kids" sliding down the roof of the general store. Yes, that's the roof of a 3-story building. Only the "kids" included two of the fathers who were sliding down, too. That got mixed reactions from the grand parents.
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| Crater Lake | Sliding Off the Rim Store Roof |
After stocking up with souvenirs from the gift shop, we started for Bend. We stopped for lunch at the Diamond Lake Resort to prevent starvation. There are very few places to eat after you leave Crater Lake. We enjoyed lunch with the fishermen as we looked out over Diamond Lake
Our one stop on the way to Bend was at Salt Creek Falls.
I had seen photos of this waterfall, and it looked like a good stop. The Forest Service did a great job of developing this area.
The viewpoints from the top were a little challenging for photographers to see over the railings and shoot all the way to the bottom of the falls,
but everything was done well and provided wheelchair accessibility to much of the area. We hiked down to the lower viewpoint,
but it was still difficult to get a great shot. It's too bad the trail doesn't go all the way down to the bottom of the canyon.
As we neared Bend, we found the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway and kept going north. All was well until we saw a sign pointing right to continue on this highway. We didn't realize at the time that the highway was a loop and that we should have gone straight ahead on the other leg of the loop. We eventually figured out what had happened and doubled back to check out Mt. Bachelor and Sparks Lake. We hoped to photograph the Mt. Bachelor reflection in Sparks Lake at sunset. The problem was that there was no Sparks Lake. It was still buried in snow, and there was no sign of open water.
We took the hint and drove on to Bend. This was the only night
of the trip that we didn't have an overnight reservation.
We searched the GPS for motels and chose the Ameritel Inn.
It was only a few miles away, and all the reviews were excellent.
It was a great choice. The motel was new and beautiful, and
it was right next to an area called "The
Old Mill District."
It is a redevelopment project that took some old mills and renovated them to create a new
shopping area. But they didn't stop there. They also cleaned
up the Deschutes River that flows by the shops, built parks,
and improved the wildlife habitat of the area. It is probably the nicest shopping area I have ever seen.
It is a great example of what people can accomplish when they do it right.
We were hungry for trout (maybe it was all the fishermen at Diamond Lake), so we went to Anthony's in the Old Mill for dinner. The food was good, but then we discovered that there was a Red Robin around the corner from Anthony's. Red Robin would have been a great ending to a very full day.
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