Rock On

Crater Lake is a hard act to follow, and to be honest, I wasn't sure my next scheduled stop would be worth the effort. I'd have to backtrack nearly 60 miles, and then return along the same road - it was't on the way to anywhere. Plus, it would be a long day even without the sightseeing - I had to cover a lot of miles. In the end, though, I decided this trip has to be more about seeing the natural wonders, even when you're taking a chance on them, than about getting on down the road. So, I took the detour, and was I ever glad I did.

After lingering at Crater Lake, I just couldn't afford the time that afternoon to take the side trip to Fort Rock. Even though it was less than 60 miles, my mapping program said it'd take 2 hours and 15 minutes to get there and the same to get back. I had visions of long, winding dirt roads. Add in any touring time and that would put me into the campground well after dark. So, I postponed it to the next day, knowing that I already had over 4 hours of driving scheduled.

I stayed in the LaPine State Park Campground that night. I'd made the reservation four days earlier, but even then only managed to snag the next to last spot available. It wasn't even an RV campsite, it was a "rustic cabin" for twice the price ($44). Oh, well, I rationalized, it will be nice to stretch out on a real bed and have a shower in my own private bathroom. Ha! When they say "rustic" they mean it. The cabin was about 15 feet square and contained exactly: two queen sized bed frames with with summer camp-type vinyl sleeping pads, one small table, two chairs, and an electric heater. I guess it's something of a milestone that I elected to spend the night in my RV rather than that cabin. To add insult to injury, a groundskeeper dropped by to tell me that people paying for a rustic cabin weren't supposed to hook up their RV to power and water, even though the hardware was available. In the morning light, it was nice enough looking, though:

With the freshness of a new morning, I decided to take a chance on seeing Fort Rock, even if it meant  more than 9 hours on the road that day. Well, I was in for another surprise: it took only one hour to get to Fort Rock though I observed the speed limits, and it was paved the whole way. It just doesn't pay to trust map programs - particularly when their estimates seem nonsensical. Furthermore, its routing didn't make sense either, telling me to take all sorts of turns that just didn't exist. I was about to give up, believing that I'd gotten completely off track, when I looked to my left and...

there it was, rising abruptly out of the desert. Fort Rock is volcanic in origin, but is not the typical cinder cone. Instead, magma on its way to the surface encountered the bottom of a lake, and with great explosions of steam threw up wall after wall of mud. The remaining water in the lake then etched these walls of mud into steep cliffs. On the southern flank, where prevailing winds drove waves hardest, the wall was breached:

The visitor's center is very low key: there's a few kiosks and a park host in a travel trailer.

(If you're concerned about visiting such a remote place, a couple miles away there is the tiny town of Fort Rock, complete with gas station and restaurant.) It's about a fifteen minute hike to get up inside the crater. I took this panorama from near the middle of the crater, though the perspective makes it appear I was outside:

A bit more hiking takes you to the highest point inside the crater. Along the way I encountered these colorful lichens:

Here's the requisite selfie to document my presence; thank you 3" tripod - I was the only soul inside the crater:

When I got back to the visitors' center, I had a nice long chat with the park host, Len. I asked if there was camping closer than LaPine and he said there are no-hook-up sites at Cabin Lake, just a few miles away. I may stay there next time I'm in the area so I can take the time to really explore Fort Rock. 

There is a dirt road leading west of the crater that I chose to take, hoping to get some photos from other angles.

That choice paid off handsomely:

So, the backtrack to Fort Rock cost me much less time than I anticipated, and was even more fascinating than I expected. The drive north through Oregon on Highway 97 didn't seem so long; though there are some parts of northern Oregon that are monotonous, there are others that are quite dramatic. In particular, the last few miles of 97 before it meets the Columbia River, plunges down through a canyon with steep cliffs on either side.

I stayed that night in Deschutes River State Recreation Area. It's beautifully landscaped:

and right next to the river:

but I've got two things against it. My friend Ronald warned me that any campground in the Columbia River Valley is likely to be close to the trains, and he was right:

and they love to blow their horn as they pass the campground. Secondly, I hooked up to the on-site water, and immediately my drinking water started tasting bad, even after I left the campground. Not contaminated bad, but overchlorinated bad, or maybe just very high in minerals. I hadn't seen the need before for an inline water filter, but now I do. I'll buy one next chance I get.

My stop the next night was with relatives in Spokane. I love to see them, but there's nothing much to report except good conversation, great food, and a bag of cookies to take away with me. I also completely refilled my water tank there, and the bad taste (mostly) went away.

I've gotten behind on posts again, this time because I've been in Canada; my wifi hotspot doesn't work there, but I'm using tonight's campground (in Salmon Arm) wifi for this post, and tomorrow, I'll be back in the States. My next post will be on Glacier National Park, and I've got a lot of great pictures.