Beaver Creek State Natural Area, Oregon

July 1 2018.

Well, here we are back at Beaver Creek.  We were here last summer (July and August 2017) to run a visitors center and lead kayak trips as volunteers  for Oregon State Parks.  We share those duties with Steve and Laura, friends we met during our first visit to the Oregon coast in 2016.  Have worked with them in Portal, AZ twice and second year here at Beaver Creek.

Here's some links that talk about Beaver Creek and surrounding area.

Beaver Creek State Natural Area via kayak
Brian Booth State Park (Beaver Creek)
Newport, OR (8 mi.north)
Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area (13 mi. north) We worked here as volunteers, Aug 2016.
Seal Rock, OR (2 mi. south)
Waldport, OR (14 mi.south)

Visitors Center with host campsites in the back.  Long commute to work.

What's YOUR Wing Span?

Beaver

Nutria

Here's a link about Nutria in Oregon.

There's a camera in the Tree Swallow nest box (red arrow below) to observe laying, hatching, feeding and eventually fledgling of the baby Tree Swallow's.

About 7 miles of hiking trails around the visitors center and on the hill across the marsh.

Home sweet home.

Black Canyon Campground

June 22, 2018

After Crater Lake we had some time to kill before arriving on the Oregon coast.  We wanted to spend some time in the Eugene area.  Campgrounds are pricey in Oregon this time of the year and we didn't need any usual campground amenities so we looked for something like a Forest Service or BLM campground. The one we chose was Black Canyon National Forest Service Campground  We tried to get a look at it on Google maps satellite view (a regular practice for us) but all we saw were trees, which should have foretold what we'd find.

As we pulled in off SR58 we were plunged into a primeval rain forest with moss hanging from every surface. This was obviously an older campground designed for tents and small campers.  There was "JUST" enough room to weave through the trees in search of a site that would accommodate our 30 ft camper.  We ran across the camphost who suggested a couple of sites.

The first site (#17) was plenty big enough and on the Willamette River but it was in very thick foliage with absolutely no sunlight getting through.  We generate our  power using ONLY SOLAR so this site was not an option.  The other site, (#35) had a little more sun exposure and was long enough but very tight side to side.  It took me two tries but we shoehorned it in.

It was challenging getting in but we really liked the park.  The lush rain forest feel was a pleasant change from the dry deserts of southern Arizona.

We were real conservative with our power usage and it was a good thing.  Each of the two days we were there, we only recovered 4-5% of our battery usage. On a normal sunny day we'll recover from 80% back to 100% battery by noon.  

During one of our many walks around the campground, Joan noticed this clump of moss that bore a striking resemblance  to a donkey shaped Pinata.

Coming next, Beaver Creek State Natural Area, Oregon.

Crater Lake National Park

June 20, 2018

As we were approaching Craters of the Moon NP, The truck decided it was time to change the oil.  It always seems to happen at the most inconvenient time, like in the wilds of Idaho. At least we had a reasonable cell signal so we could call around and find the nearest Ford dealer that could do the job within our time frame.  That happened to be Twin Falls, 90 miles from Craters.  As we were entering town the view of the below gorge caught us by surprise.  The Snake river winds it's way through southern Idaho.  In  some places the river bank is just a few feet above the water level.  In others it carves these impressive gorges.  There's a lot of features in Southern Idaho we need to come back and explore.

We spent the day in Twin Falls taking care of lifes necessities like laundry, food, haircut and of course the oil change.  Our destination this evening was another Wal-Mart, in Jerome, ID.

Since leaving southeastern Arizona we'd been dry camping, no electric or water hookups.  Our next destination was the small town of  Homedale, ID, just east of the Oregon state line.  They have a little city campground right on the Snake river with nice grassy sites, water and electric hookups for $15 a night.  Oh, by the way, they also had a bath house with LOTS of hot water!  We spent a couple days at Homedale just relaxing.

We had one more intermediate stop before reaching Crater Lake NP, Chickahominy Reservoir, a BLM site in a desolate area of central Oregon.  When we arrived it was a cold and windy overcast afternoon, we didn't even unhook from the truck.  Taking a picture of the campsite just didn't come to mind.

On the road to Chickahominy Reservoir.

Our destination was Diamond Lake Campground.  It was recommended to us as a good base for visiting Crater Lake National Park. This is where it really hit us that we weren't in an arid zone any more.  There were large pines and green bushes everywhere.

Diamond Lake campground site A22.  A bit slopey but we made it work.

The forecast was for rain in the afternoon of the next day, so we headed into the park to get some afternoon views.  The glassy water and clouds made for some interesting pictures.

Wizard island, the volcano within a volcano.

We wanted to spend more time in the park this afternoon so we decided to have dinner at the Crater Lake Lodge.

Joan (lower left) observing distant objects across the lake while waiting for our dinner reservation.

The next day started clear but building clouds foretold of the coming rain.

Vidae Falls

Phantom Ship

On the trail to Plaikni Falls.

Plaikini Falls

The Pinnacles.

More information on the formation of Crater Lake here.

This guy's been feed before!  But ain't he cute!

Even the Chipmunks enjoy the view. 

Coming next, On toward the Oregon coast.

Craters of the Moon National Monument

Here's the second try on the Craters of the Moon National Monument.

June 12, 2018

Looking at the map we decided to just blast through Provo, Salt Lake City, Ogden areas heading toward southern Idaho. Our first stop was a Wal-Mart in Springfield, UT just south of Provo.

As is our habit, we look for a local brewpub when we stop.  Low and behold, right across the street was the Strap Tank Brewery. Since we weren't driving any more today we walked over for dinner and some local craft beer.

Strap Tank Brewery

Their name sake, a replica of the rare early Harley Davidson motorcycle.

We try to travel only about 200-250 miles a day so we spent the next day traveling through the Salt Lake City area and on into southern Idaho for another night of Wal-Mart camping.

The next day, we moved on to Craters of the Moon National Monument.

Appropriately named, Lava Flow Campground, site # 35 - all those rocks around the campsite are lava.

Looking south from atop Inferno Cone along the Great Rift that formed the features of
Craters of the Moon Nat'l Monument .

Lava flow looks like it stopped yesterday instead of 2,000 years ago.

Ranger talking about the Limber Pine on the "Evening Stroll " program.

Wild flowers blooming on the side of a cinder cone volcano.

Dwarf Buckwheat

Dwarf Monkeyflower

Syringa

A blustery morning on the side of  Inferno Cone. 

Looking north toward the Pioneer Mountains.

Spatter cone.

From atop s Spatter Cone, looking into the "belly of the beast".

Coming next, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon.