Covered Bridges & Waterfalls

Labor Day Road Trip, part 1

At the last minute, Michael & I changed our Labor Day backpacking plans to a Labor Day road trip to Central Oregon. We had quickly driven through Central Oregon on road trips past but wanted to explore just a little bit more this land of Ponderosas and volcanoes. We found that there's just too much to try to cram in to 3 days - that weekend trips should concentrate on one area at a time and one activity at a time. This weekend was for exploring and now we have some ideas.

We drove as far as Eugene on Friday night so we could get an early start exploring the Willamette and McKenzie river valleys. I had looked up a few covered bridges in Lane County, ok I printed out 21 pages of directions and descriptions. So we spent the morning hopping from one covered bridge to the next before driving through the thick western forest that was at once foreign and familiar to us. Along with the Douglas-Fir and Cascade Azaleas were Ponderosa Pines and Manzanita a combination not seen on the western slopes in Washington.

We followed different rivers throughout the day, leaving one drainage to come into another then finally coming to the McKenzie River - an intensely clear river sparkling in the sun. We stopped at a series of waterfalls cascading over lava flows left thousands of years ago. The water was so clear, Olympia was fooled by the apparent shallowness of the rocks below that she stepped into the fast-flowing rapids only to be quickly pulled back by Michael, her tummy half dripping.

We finally crossed into the Eastern side of Oregon over Santiam Pass and was greeted by a great plume of smoke from a forest fire making its way north towards Black Butte. We camped that night along the shores of Suttle Lake.