Oregon week #2 & around Bend, OR

We left Diamond Lake on Wednesday the 18th. Our intended destination was Cascade Lake, only about an hour north. Cascade Lake campground was a madhouse with families, children, barking dogs, etc. Around here, school doesn't start until after Labor Day. Until then, the families will be taking full advantage, as they should, of the remaining few weeks before school starts. Looking forward to Labor Day.
We continued north on Forest Road 46, the Cascade Lakes Scenic Highway. Stopped at a campground on Davis Lake. There had been a fire not long ago and the place was really ugly. On the north end of Davis Lake is an area where lava flowed into the lake. There is a free campground on the lake. At another time, we may come back here. It's called Lava Flow Campground.
We drove through a few more campgrounds, including Cultus Lake but were not happy enough to want to stay. It was getting late, by our standards, so we decided we would stay at the next campground we came across. It turned out to be Little Lava Lake. a small campground with 15 sites. What a find!!. We got what is probably the best campsite in the campground. Site #11;a pull through directly on the lake. On one of our walks, I saw a mink. A lady camping next to us was kayaking and saw beaver. She said if you get up before sunrise, you may hear the coyotes.
When ever we talk about our all time favorites, Little Lava Lake will come up.
We're staying here through Saturday then heading into Bend on Sunday.
We left for Bend about 8:30 on Sunday. In Bend, we drove by a beautiful linear park running along the Deschutes River. Later in the day, we stopped at one of the parks to let Gopher run for a while. Went shopping at Wal-Mart, Fred Meyers, and Whole Foods. Got all stocked up for another week in the mountains. We drove to the Pilot View State Park. This is the core of an extinct volcano. From the top, there is a great view for miles in all directions. We parked in downtown Bend and Carol & I had lunch at the Bend Burger Company. Carol was good, she had the very tasty Central Oregon Green Bean salad topped with chicken. There was enough for lunch and dinner. We're both on diets; too many bakery's. Over the last two weeks, we have each lost five pounds. Five more to go.
We stayed the night at the Scandia RV Park. $37/night. It's just RV's stacked on top of each other but served our needs for today. We dumped the tanks, filled with water, did laundry for a bargain $1/load, and now Carol is watching 50 channels of cable TV. Tomorrow, it's back to the mountains. Actually, the city was a nice change. Stopped by Staples and mailed Mom some more of her meds. and another $100 in cash. Mailed the broken router back to Cradlepoint.

Oregon Week #1 & Crater Lake

We left the campground at Winnemucca, NV about 7:00am. What a great find Water Canyon was. The drive to OR was interesting. The Nevada part was mostly more high desert. In Oregon there were two areas frequented by hang gliders. We saw several very remote boondocking sites. These are primarily people living on the fringe of society. A small trailer, a truck, and a free place to live in the middle of nowhere. We finally saw some green trees, grass & water. The first time since we left Colorado.
We got to Lakeview, OR about noon time. Stopped at the State Visitor Center then continued to the Lofton Reservoir campground. Wow!!. Just what we were looking for. Right on the shore of the reservoir plus it's free.
Lots of animals. We saw a doe drinking from the lake, a muskrat swimming, an assortment of birds and were entertained by perhaps a dozen chipmunks. We're staying here for the rest of the weekend.
On Sunday we drove to Klamath Falls to go grocery shopping, dump the tanks, get fresh water and do laundry. We stayed at the Sunset FS campground. Not nearly as nice as the Lofton Reservoir, but OK for a night. On Monday we drove through the Aspen Point, Fish Lake & Doe Point campgrounds hoping for a nice waterfront site. No luck. All of these campgrounds overlook lakes but don't have direct waterfront sites. We continued to the Crater Lake National Park. Went to the visitor center, had a nice lunch in the restaurant then checked in at the Mazama Campground.
On Monday we got up early, had breakfast then drove around the lake. The view was just spectacular.

We stopped at all the view points and walked around.
After Crater Lake we went to the Diamond Lake FS campground. Got lucky and would up with a great lakeside site. Used the scooter and we all took a nice walk. As I type this, it's 6:24pm. There is a bid storm moving through. Lightning, heavy rain and small hail now & then. Poor people in the tents.

Heading to Oregon

On Sunday the 8th, we had a nice breakfast with Suzanne & family then left to continue our trip towards Oregon. We visited with John & Linda at their property near Monument, CO. Gopher votes their "campground" into her Top Ten. All day with no leash.
On Monday we drove to Salida. Spent the night at the free BLM campground just of Hwy 50 east of town. In the morning we went to town intent on stopping by a great bakery. The bakery is closed on Tuesday!! Oh well, saved a bunch of empty calories. Dumped the tanks & filled with water at the City Visitor Center. We stopped at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park for a visit. About 4:00 we got to Grand Junction, CO and stayed at the Colorado River State Park. Nothing special but it's convenient to I-70 and a full days drive by our standards.
The initial plan was to visit the Dinosaur National Park at the CO/UT border. Turns out the main Visitor Center is closed for a major renovation, so we decided to head directly to OR; a 1,000 mile drive!!.
The drive through UT was very interesting. The drive from Green River north to the Provo area was especially pretty. Past Salt LLake City we saw the Great Salt Lake, a huge Kennecot copper mining operation and the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Spent the night in a parking lot in West Wendover, NV. West Wendover is the first city into Nevada on I-80. Not much. Basically a collection of casinos, hotels, etc.
On Thursday, we continued west on I-80 to Winnemuca, NV. We stayed in the BLM campground at Water Canyon. A very pleasant campground on a nice cool day. a huge improvement over last nights parking lot. And both were free!!
It's 8:27pm Pacific Time as I type this. The sun just set. The view from our campsite if just beautiful. We're looking at the sparkling lights of the city and the mountains tinted orange from the sun. The other way is a quarter moon and stars. There are no lights in the campground. It's a basic, rustic, disbursed type campground. Find a spot you like and just turn off the ignition. It's been another wonderful day.

Longmont area

On Monday, August 2nd, we went to the city campground in Lyons that Suzanne had suggested. It's located right on a small river and within easy walking distance of town. On Monday we went to dinner with Art Neves & Suzanne & her family. On Tuesday Izzy spent the day with us and on Wednesday Suzanne, Izzy & Oliver spent the night. On Friday Carol had her blood work done at Quest Labs in Longmont.

South towards Longmont

We started the long drive south to visit Suzanne & family. Primarily it's US Hwy 85 to Interstate 25 in Wyoming. A little ways south of Watford City there was a detour because of road construction. Between waiting for it to be our turn, and the detour, it took an hour and twenty minutes.
We stopped at Grassy Butte, ND for the night. They have a small city park right off Hwy 85. There is a sod building post office. Look at the sign & picture. Not much else in Grassy Butte. There were two guys from Oregon and one from Montana living in the park. They worked the oil rigs in the area. The guys from OR lived in a tent and the Mt guy had a small, older trailer. It gets down to about -40* in the winter. The OR guys were thinking about what they would do come October.
In the morning we continued south stopping at the Belle Fourche Dam & reservoir near Belle Fourche, SD. We're camped on a point of land sticking out into the reservoir. It's just us. Getting hot. Right now, about 2pm, it's 95*. Running the generator and A/C.

Drifting west through North Dakota

We left the International Peace Garden this morning. Decided to go to Bottineau to do laundry, shopping, etc. Tommy the Turtle on his snowmobile is the town mascot. At about 7:00pm a severe thunderstorm watch was issued for this county. This was upgraded to a tornado watch!!. Most of the other campers seem to be people employed in seasonal work or in the oil industry. About 6:00 they pulled in with their trucks. Mostly guys in their 20's. Two motorcycle riders from Saskatchewan, CA just pulled in to get out of the weather. They pitched their tents behind us.
At 8:23pm the local Tornado Watch siren sounded. Everyone is out looking for a tornado but the sky actually looks a little brighter then it did earlier. I'm looking at the weather radar on the computer. The worst of the storm is further south around Minot. Down there, they are talking about 60 mph winds and baseball size hail, Don't need any of that! We think this was the first tornado watch we have been in.
In the morning we did laundry & ate apple fritters. Got to stop looking for those great local bakeries. :-)
Continued west. Past Mohall, off Hwy 5 is the Upper Souris River National Wildlife Refuge. There is a County Park with RV camping; the Mouse River Park. What an interesting place. The campground is about 3/4 full but no one is actually here. I bet we haven't seen ten people the last two days. Weird. It's like a ghost town. Carol says it's something out of The Twilight Zone. This is almost exclusively a weekend place. About half the RV tags are from Saskatchewan,Canada; all the rest are from ND.. Outside the campground boundaries, are a few streets with small cabins, old trailers, etc., on privately owned lots. There is a cafe, a bar/dance hall, a large gazebo, boat launch, on & on. I'm sure on weekends this place is really hoping. It only costs $12/night for a site with electricity; a real bargain. If we weren't heading to visit with Suzanne, we would hang around just to see the weekend.
On Wednesday, we had dinner at the cafe. Just us, the waitress & the cook. If our travels ever bring us back this way, we'll be here for a weekend.
Thursday morning we headed out. Our tentative destination was the Northgate Dam Recreation Area. On the way, we drove through downtown Bowbells, ND then stopped at the city park for a break. Like so many very small towns in the area, Bowbells has seen better days. Sun Prairie Grain is the biggest employer in the area. At one time, cattle ranching was big. Then there was the oil boom days when oil was over $100/barrel. Today mostly there are vacant buildings. The 2009 population was estimated at 325; down from over 400 in 2000.
We continued on to the Northgate Dam Recreation Area; what a nice find that was. For $10 we got a lakefront site with electricity. There are a few other people here. Two families from ND and one from Sask. At night, another big storm was forecast for this area. Got lucky once again; it was south of us down by Minot. We watched the lightning display for a few hours.

International Peace Garden

On Sunday we visited the International Peace Garden which strides the US/Canada border in North Dakota. Had a very nice walk and an enjoyable lunch.



The website tells the story much better then I could.

http://www.peacegarden.com/




The weather is warming up. We drove to Bottineau to get caught up on shopping and do the laundry. Stayed in the City Campground with electrical power so we could use the A/C.