May 14, 2023
5/8- We are staying in the little town of Gold Hill which was formed in the 1890’s when a large gold nugget was found and miners poured into the area to find their own gold. http://www.southernoregon.com/profiles/goldhill/index.html
The Rouge River runs through Gold Hill and is a popular spot for white water rafting. We found several areas to park and walk around and view the beauty of the river and the Ti’lomikh Falls. This area is where the Takelma, which means “People of the River” lived and fished for salmon. We found the “story chair” where they held a ceremony each year at the first run of the Salmon to ensure they would return the next year. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=99319.
We saw a baby goosling along the river with it parents. It was cute we had to take a lot of pictures.
Along the river we met a gentleman and his daughter who gave us direction to an off-road trail that ran along the river, so we headed off to explore it. The road ended near Medford, Oregon and it was dinner time so we stopped at Red Robin for dinner before heading back to our campground.
5/9- Today was a very full day. We had wanted to see Crater Lake but had been told that you could only go up there with chains or snow tires, so we decided to see how close we could get before we had to turn back. We figured we would have a lot of things to see and explore along the way. Some of our best discoveries are the unexpected that we find along our way to somewhere else. As we headed up toward Crater Lake we came upon Lost Creek Lake and a sign for a fish hatchery so we decided to stop and explore. The hatchery was named in honor of Cole W Rivers and is one of the largest on the Oregon coast. They hatch both Salmon and trout here. https://myodfw.com/cole-rivers-hatchery-fish-counts. We were able to walk around and see fish from little fingerlings to full grown fish jumping up the fish ladder. We tried to get a fish climbing the ladder but just couldn’t snap the picture fast enough.
Just up the road from the hatchery is the William Jess Dam. Due to heavy melting of snow and predicted with the weather warming up during the week, they were releasing a lot of water and we watched in amazement as it shot out from the sluice gate. We were able to talk to an office worker at the dam who gave us a map of the area and a recommendation of places we needed to see on our trek up toward Crater Lake.
As we got closer to Crater Lake we discovered the roads were well plowed and even though there was a tremendous amount of snow we were able to make the drive up to Crater Lake without any problem. The visitor center was snowed in and to see the lake you had to climb up an 8 or 10 foot snow bank. Crater Lake was formed in a collapsing volcano and is one of the deepest lakes in the United States. It was amazing to view it. https://www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm
I was glad I had my trek sticks because I was able to pull off the rubber tips from the bottom of the poles and use the tip on the pole to stick into the snow and make it easier to both climb up and down from viewing the lake. But before heading down the snowbank I had to recreate a picture from my childhood. When I was about a year old my mom, dad, brother, sister, niece and I traveled to Crater Lake and climbed the snowbank where a picture was taken of me on top of the bank in my father’s arms.
As we headed back to our campground we stopped at the two places that had been recommended by the woman at the dam. The first was the Rouge Gorge it was incredible to see. There the Rogue River carves a path through hardened basalt lava tubes left by the eruption of the volcano at Crater Lake. This narrow chasm is 500 feet long and barely 25 feet wide at the narrowest point. Roughly 410,000 gallons of water flowing through it each minute. https://www.outdoorproject.com/united-states/oregon/rogue-gorge
Just a few more minutes down the road was another trail called the Natural Bridge. There we were able to see where normally the Rogue River disappears underground into a 250-foot lava tube, with a small amount of water escaping from the tube, mixing with the water slowly down the river. The river was running so full that not all of the river disappeared into the tube but it was still cool to see. https://www.oregonwild.org/wilderness/crater-lake-wilderness-proposal/rogue-gorge-and-natural-bridge
5/10- We were both tired after all our adventures yesterday so today we just took it easy and hung out at the campground. I did head into town and got my nails done.
5/11- Today we moved up the road to Albany, Oregon. GPS managed to get us lost on our way to our campground so it was a long day, longer than we had planned. Tomorrow we meet with the repair place to see about getting our RV fixed so this was just a small stop on the route without any activities planned. Instead we pulled out our rocking lawn chairs and sat outside and enjoyed the evening. Teddi likes to come out and sit with us. We make him wear his vest and leash but he doesn’t even want to get down. He just likes watching the birds from my arms.
5/12- We had no idea what today would bring once we got to the repair shop in Eugene, Oregon. We thought we would have to drop the RV off and pick it up in a few days when it was fixed so we were surprised when we were told the earliest they could even get our RV in to repair was the end of August and repairs would take about 2 weeks. After spending some time talking with the guys at the shop, who assured us we had the RV taped and screwed up well enough for it to be able to travel on, we made the decision to not wait around to have the RV repaired there. We will have to talk to our insurance company on Monday to determine what we should do next and we will be looking for other repair shops that might get us in sooner and get the job done sooner. Our trip will continue for now until we figure out where and when we will be getting the RV repaired. After leaving the RV repair shop we found a Wal-Mart to park at so we could sit down and figure out where we wanted to head to next. We found a campground close by in Eugene and made reservations. We did some grocery shopping and then headed to where we would be staying for the next couple days.
5/13- Today we headed up the McKenzie River Valley. The area had been hit by a massive fire in 2020 and you could see the damage done and the rebuilding going on in the area. The fire was the largest in Oregon’s history and burned over 173,000 acres. Despite the damage done you could see how the forest begins to recover and there was still so much beauty around. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holiday_Farm_Fire
We wanted to stop at some of Oregon’s famous covered bridges. We found and were able to drive across two of the covered bridges. The first was the Goodpasture Bridge which was built in 1938. https://www.eugenecascadescoast.org/explore/history-culture-museums/covered-bridges/goodpasture-covered-bridge/
The second was the Belknap Bridge. It was originally built in 1890 but was replaced in 1966 https://www.eugenecascadescoast.org/explore/history-culture-museums/covered-bridges/belknap-covered-bridge/
After checking the bridges we were off to Terwilliger Hot Springs where we were hoping to soak. When were informed when we checked in that this was an clothing optional springs but that most people choose to wear clothes so we braved the ¼ mile hike to the springs. The springs has four pools ranging from 85 degrees to 112 degrees. Only 50 people are allowed at the pool at any one time and your visit is limited to 2 hours. Luckily while we were at the hot springs only one guy decided to be optional with his clothes but we were able to soak in a different pool and enjoyed our time there. While we were soaking a gentleman told us that there were two ways to get to the Hot Springs and one way was via a National Forest Road that was 7 miles long and was not maintained so could be quite an adventure. We tended to enjoy off-road adventures so after we left the hot springs we headed back via that road. https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/willamette/recarea/?recid=4391
The road was an adventure due to rock slides and fallen trees. There was one place where we were not sure we would be able to fit under the tree and might have to turn back but we were able to squeak through with inches to spare. It was a great day!
5/14- We were able to snag a night in Silver Falls State Park. The park stays pretty booked and it is hard to get a spot so we were happy that we were able to find one.
Silver Falls State Park had 10 waterfalls you can view and even a couple that you can walk behind. Once we got set up in our campground we were off to hike and explore a few of them. We got to see South Falls, Upper North Falls and North Falls along with several small waterfalls. Our campground is beautiful and after a day of hiking we enjoyed relaxing outside and enjoying the view.
We are hoping we can book a site so we can spend another day here.
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