road trip – day two (ashland to bend)

Started the day with a short hike above ashland. here’s the view from the trail.

after that, headed through medford toward crater lake. what a gorgeous drive! i loved driving through the farmlands west of medford.

stopped at the rogue river gorge scenic viewpoint because i thought the dogs might need a break, and am i glad i did! this is a sight not to miss. the wildness of the gorge was incredible and the roar of the water was so loud. none of my pictures could adequately capture how breath-taking it was. even lola was impressed.

from there we went on to crater lake, where the snow banks were 8 feet high and it was REALLY COLD. i definitely wasn’t prepared for that. the rim drive is usually closed until mid-July, but i didn’t realize how little we could actually do. not only that, i wasn’t there 10 minutes before it started to snow and the lake became obscured by clouds. ah well– next time! fortunately i did get a partial view of the lake.

after crater lake i headed for Bend, Oregon, driving through pouring rain half the time. once i got closer to Bend the weather cleared. stopped briefly at the Newberry Lava Monument, which was closed but at least the dogs got to run around a bit. one day i’d like to go back and check it out.