Another Dreary Day
Today started out like too many mornings on this trip: completely overcast and dreary. It rained last night, and the sun was nowhere to be seen this morning. I was ready for a day off from driving, so I settled in to get caught up on the website, planning the coming days, and cleanup.
By afternoon, the sky began to clear, and we had mostly sunny skies with scattered cumulus clouds. It was a nice day here, but when we checked the webcams for Mt. Bachelor and Smith Rock, they were still completely socked in. I checked every few minutes, but nothing seemed to change.
Finally, about 5:00, we decided to drive towards Bend to see if there was any chance of clearing around Mt. Bachelor. As we neared Bend, we hoped for a 50/50 chance of some sun around Mt. Bachelor and Sparks Lake. Our first glimpses of Mt. Bachelor showed bright sun on the peak, but as we got nearer, it was obvious that the side facing east was clear but the west side was again shrouded in heavy clouds. We continued up the mountain and down to the Sparks Lake turnoff and parked near the campground entrance. As we got out of the Explorer, the sun dropped into the clouds. It was still a couple of hours before sunset, so we got back in the car to see what would develop. Slowly, the clouds thinned so we could see some blue sky here and there, so we hiked out into the meadow to shoot the peaks reflected in a meandering stream. There was nothing special about the shots, but we were glad to be out shooting instead of cooped up in the motorhome listening to it rain.
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