Exploring Scenic Oregon Highway 242

Oregon Route 242 is a section of the McKenzie Highway running between Sisters and Belknap Springs, over the McKenzie Pass. The road passes through eons of volcanic activity from nearby Three Sisters mountains and Mount Washington.

At the top of McKenzie Pass the road winds through a massive lava field only about 1500 years old and features the Dee Wright Observatory, a lookout tower built out of lava by the CCC in 1935. There's an interesting, short paved interpretive path through the lava and the views are stunning.

Approaching the summit of McKenzie Pass through lava flows, the Dee Wright Observatory is a beacon.
I liked how the clouds over the cinder cone on the right looked like smoke coming from the cone!

To the West the North and Middle Sisters loom over the lava fields.
Glaciers can be seen between them.

We toured the lava observatory to enjoy 360 degree views.

Mt Washington is the pointed peak on the right;
its pointy profile is evidence of glacier carving over the centuries.

Mt Washington zoomed!

A hobbit-like tree that could be decades old
struggles to survive in the harsh environment.

We continued on down Hwy 242 towards Proxy Falls, dropping several thousand feet and heading into damp and cloudy conditions along the way. Though the mountainsides were heavily covered in forest we could see we were still in land layered with ancient lava flows.

The Proxy Falls trail is a two mile loop through beautiful mossy lava beds laced with conifers and maples. Make sure you take the two short spur trails to see both upper and lower Proxy falls. The day we hiked the maples were just barely starting to turn...in a couple of weeks the fall colors should be spectacular!

The forest service wants people to hike this trail in a counter clockwise direction so they only mark one end of the trail. If you have started as marked, make sure you go right at the Y to reach the lower falls viewpoint.

From a viewpoint through the trees these falls are quite impressive at over 200 feet tall.

It's a bit of a challenge to get to the bottom of the falls but it sure is pretty!

Once you're done viewing lower falls, head back to the Y and continue on down the trail. At the next Y turn right. This takes you to the upper falls.

The upper falls look even taller than the lower.

Here's a close up of the center.
The mosses and greenery and shimmering cascades make this seem like a fairyland.

The interesting thing about the upper falls...the water just seeps into the ground, there is no exit stream!

Now it was time for us to head back towards Sisters and ultimately Bend. We chose to make our drive into a loop by continuing on Hwy 242 to Hwy 126 towards Sisters. This was a long loop with a few interesting stops along the way (such as Sahalie Falls) but we had "been there, done that" before and bypassed additional stops on this trip. Suffice it to say, if you are staying in Sisters, OR, the Hwy 242 to HWY 126 loop makes for a beautiful day trip with lots to see and do.

Bend Happenings

Bend, OR is one of our favorite cities in the West. It's got an incredible amount of recreational opportunities both right in town and within 30 - 60 minutes of town. Though it's grown like crazy in the last 20 - 30 years and the traffic can be pretty heavy during rush periods, the city planners have done an excellent job of providing foot and bike paths to the city infrastructure.

Though it's situated in a high desert environment, the Deschutes River runs through town, 10,000+ foot peaks lie directly West of town and desert landscape spreads out to the East and even includes amazing rock formations. The entire area is covered in volcanic detritus from thousands of years of eruptions from as long ago as 300,000 years to as recently as 1,300 years ago.

Looking West from Pilot Butte the horizon is dominated by 10,000+ foot peaks.
From left to right: Mt Bachelor, Broken Top, and the Three Sisters.

Looking NW from Pilot Butte, Mt Jefferson is the pointy peak on the left and
you can just barely see Mt Hood right of center (that's a very long ways off).

Trumpeter Swans enjoying the Deschutes River.

We found an amazing deal for white water rafting on the Deschutes River: Seventh Mountain Resort offers a $25/per person deal on Tuesdays (possibly only in Sept after Labor Day). You check in at the Resort and they bus you to the start just a couple miles away. The day we went, there were five rafts full and we were told we'd get soaked! Of course, this was another adventure where cameras were not advised...though the Resort had a photographer snapping pics during the crazy part...for sale later, of course.

We had a nice gentle float for a while, where we got to know each other, learned the few skills we'd need from our guide, and admired the lovely scenery that we had biked past the other day. Soon we had a fun little Class 1 section to whet our appetite and ready us for the wild stuff. Then we romped through about 400 yards of Class 3 rapids! Scary fun!

Lucky for us, one of our fellow rafters was visiting her sister, who happened to be running along the river during our ride...so we got (free) photos! Thanks Jessica!

Hans and I are in the white hat and the khaki hat in the middle row.
In this photo we are entering the Class III section...

Riding the Class III roller coaster!

We've been a little disappointed with the recliners that came with our Montana; the quality was less than we'd hoped for and they did not swivel making it a bit uncomfortable for the person in the farthest chair to watch TV. The simplest alternative, La-z-Boy, doesn't make swivel wall-hugger chairs, so we were fortunate to try out John and Pam's Bradd and Hall chairs when we met them in San Diego last winter. Spending a month in Bend allowed us to order and receive new chairs...and we love them!

The old chairs were huge and and blocked access to the window, the overhead cupboards and the blinds.

Now we can really see out the window, swivel to watch TV, and reach everything that was
a struggle to access before...including the weird cabinet behind the right chair.
They are way more comfortable than the old chairs and,
the new fabric is more immune to cat claws than the old fabric.

It's not been all fun and games here though...our beloved Chevy truck got hit in the RV park! A new neighbor was trying to park his rig in the site next to ours and swung too wide and his trailer hit the back of our truck, then his bumper snagged our bumper and made things worse...for both vehicles.

The tail light and bumper have to be replaced and the left rear quarter panel is ever so slightly tweaked
so the whole panel will have to be clear coated.

Fortunately we are here for two more weeks which should be enough time to get this fixed and not delay our departure. This is definitely a case of "sh*t happens" and we are rolling with it. Hans parents arrive for a short visit in a few days and now we have a comfortable mini van to sight see in...putting mileage on someone else's vehicle!

And...this morning as I publish this post the electrical portion of our water heater isn't working, though the propane ignition is. Luckily the water heater still has one more year of warranty on it, so this should be an easy situation to fix.

And so it goes. If we had a stick house, we'd be dealing with this kind of stuff too. The best part these days is that we are retired so we have plenty of time to deal with any issues that come up! Life is good!

Smith Rock State Park Rocks!

Smith Rock State Park lies a few miles East of Redmond, OR. It's a unique geologic wonder in the area. Formed by volcanic action millions of years ago, today it is sheer tuff and basalt cliffs rising abruptly from the desert along the curvy green banks of the Crooked River.

This is one popular park that we don't mind hiking on a weekend...it happens to be a world renowned rock climbing destination, so we hoped to see some people on the massive rock faces.

On our last visit to Bend in 2008 it was too hot to do more than walk along the river; this time, even though it was warm, we hiked about four miles, taking the Misery Ridge Trail up and over, then down the back side on the Mesa Verde Trail, with a return along the river, around the South end of the formations.

From the parking area this massive wall of multi-colored rock looms imposingly over the Crooked River canyon.

You can see Misery Ridge Trail cutting across the mountainside
just below the striking purple-red rock on the NE face.

Looking SW you can see tiny specks of people walking along the river below the rock spires.

The trail heads up the the mountainside...they don't call it Misery Ridge for nothing!

And up!
You can see a tiny figure atop the center rock, we'll be there shortly.

The view to the North is worth the climb.

Looking South we see a pretty mix of farm and desert land.
In the distance the two of the Three Sisters, Broken Top and Mt Bachelor are faintly visible.

And then we see this crazy colorful sheer-faced rock jutting out from the West wall!

It is massive and has climbing clips (?) attached.
We would LOVE to see a person on this!

We saw two of these rescue kiosks in the park.

Yeah, I'm kind of fascinated by that spire!
But, look closely, there is a tiny blue speck near the center of the photo.
And an even tinier white speck near the crease at the top left.

That white speck is a climbers helmet!

The West side of the mountain is just as beautiful as the East.

We wondered why cables were strung between rocks in several places.

A string of people making their way up the cliff.

I think this was one of several climbing classes.

North West view.

Looking South we see the lava flow that directs the course of the river.

Coming around the South end of the range the rock face becomes more jagged.

And then a section of smooth rock.

And more climbers. This was a hot day, temps edging into the 80's at 11am;
the rock face had to be much warmer.

There are two climbers on this wall.

Three on this wall...

Heading back up the opposite side of the canyon towards the car,
we noticed tiny specks of people atop the colorful rock at the North end.

Closer inspection (full zoom here) showed what those wires strung between rocks was for!

Hiking here was an awesome experience. We overheard folks telling a park ranger they had seen eight otters swimming in the river. Next time I'll have to tear my focus away from the rocks and pay a little more attention to the water as well!