Crater Lake

Today we made the 2.5 hour drive to Crater Lake National Park. It was worth every minute of it. We came in from the North Rim which was closest to Sunriver and drove down the West Rim Highway. (As it turns out the East Rim Highway was still closed due to the snow.) There was plenty of snow still on the ground even though the temperatures up on the rim were still in the high sixties/low seventies. We had lunch in the lodge and enjoyed the spectacular views from there.

I stitched together some of the pictures to make a few panoramics, but it doesn't really do the view justice. (Click on the pictures for a larger version of them.)


A view from just south of the lodge. Note the lodge in the upper left.


Heading back north from the lodge. The island is called Wizard Island.


Another view. This one is on the way to the lodge. Snow still on the foreground.


Probably one of my favorites. Note the "Danger" sign in the foreground.

Rafting in Sunriver

So we went on what was supposed to be a lazy rafting trip from the Sunriver marina down the Deschutes River for six miles. It was pretty much as advertised: lazy summer day. We stopped for a picnic along the way on the shore. But on the final 500 yards we struck a stray log along the side and successfully ruptured the raft. Thanks to Drew's dutch-boy imitation (he plugged the hole in the raft with his finger) and Diane's handy paddling, we made it. Seriously, if he hadn't plugged the hole a family of five would have been swimming swiftly in 55 degree water for the final 500 yards...

Playing in the River

Just another easy-going day on vacation - it was a hot one so we played in the extremely cold river that afternoon.

Alex's Birthday

Alex's perfect day: homemade waffles for breakfast along with a new iPod shuffle and iDog, off to bowling, home for PB&J, going to the "Kung Fu Panda" movie and then Alex made his famous chicken nuggets for dinner for all of us. Happy seventh birthday!

Molly Rides a Pony

Molly went on a little pony ride while the boys went bird-watching with Grandpa and Grams.

Metolius River

We also visited the head of the Metolius River which emerges from the side of a hill near Sisters, OR. Dad and Terrie are huge bird watchers and this turned out to be a great bird watching day both here and at the Wizard Falls fish hatchery. We saw a Stellars Jay at the river origin and a rare Dipper at the fish hatchery. As you can see, the kids really got into watching birds too. There aren't any pictures of the fish (trust me there were lots of them in large tanks and a pond) but the rapids are of the Wizard Falls and they really are this strange blueish color - very cool.

Newberry Caldera

Diane’s Dad and step-mom visited next. The first stop was the Newberry Caldera. This is still part of the same National Monument that includes Lava Lands, the Lava River Cave and the Lava Cast Forest and is right outside Sunriver where we are living. This part of the park included an incredible obsidian mountain where the short loop trail was still covered in snow. It also included the best lunch stop yet – a picnic spot by Paulina Falls that was only a short walk away.

Lave Cast Forest and Benham Falls

A lava "cast" tree - although if you took 3rd grade science you know that this is actually a "mold."


We had another fun day with Uncle Doug and Aunt Bonny. We toured the lava cast forest (holes where trees used to be) and hiked to Benham Falls. Yes, that's right we actually hiked to a falls with all the kids. Then Doug and Drew hiked ahead about 200 yards and noticed that there was a parking lot right there!