Somehow, Marilyn and I have managed to live in Oregon for nearly 27 years and have never visited the state’s only National Park. We unassed that foolishness last Saturday as part of the very fine Father’s Day weekend Ceili put together.
Ceili had visited Crater Lake National Park last October on a field trip for an elective geology class. I’m happy to say that the college edimucation is working; she made an excellent tour guide.
Crater Lake formed out of the collapse of Mount Mazama in a massive volcanic eruption 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. The volcano subsided to form a caldera 1,949 feet deep, which, over centuries, filled with snowmelt and rain water. It’s the deepest lake in the U.S., the ninth-deepest lake in the world. With no inlets or outlets, it is strangely still except for the play of the wind on the surface, and the color and the purity of the water is extraordinary.
Truly breathtaking.
As always with such places, there were too many people for our taste, but we managed to maintain “social distancing” (aka “normalcy”) without too much extra effort.
We climbed partway up the Garfield Peak Trail as a break-in for my Father’s Day present — a pair of Vasque hiking boots. Kid got herself a pair at 50% off while she was at it.
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Crater Lake is an easy 2-1/4-hour drive from home, which we filled in part listening to Larkin Poe’s new record, Self-Made Man. We discovered Larkin Poe when they played the Sisters Rhythm and Brews Festival last summer. What a show they put on, despite the fact that lead singer Rebecca Lovell was battling strep throat. They threw down and blew the doors off.
Rebecca and Megan Lovell are singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist sisters steeped in their southern heritage. Rebecca has a fine voice, both rich and powerful, and Megan is an exceptional slide player. Her harmonies make her sister’s vocals soar.
As you can imagine, it’s gratifying to me to see young musicians like the Lovell sisters who truly honor tradition — and keep it living and breathing fire. Continuity & Persistence.
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Ceili got back in the saddle on Sunday for the first time in a couple of years thanks to Windy and Craig Rullman at the Figure 8. She got bucked off a piece of exercise equipment back in May 2019 (yeah, I can’t really picture it either), and suffered two transverse process fractures (the nubs on the outside of the vertebrae). As vertebrae fractures go, that’s the kind you want — no permanent damage. However… she didn’t feel up to riding last summer. Now she’s craving it. Seeing her back in the saddle was a nice touch for a Father’s Day.
Steak dinner; Yellowstone…
As Taylor Sheridan’s t-shirt would say…
Pretty damn good Father’s Day.
Ginny Smith says
Looks like a great day Jim. So if you are in need of another National Park fix as well as a Colter Wall replacement…..look at Under the Big Sky Festival 2021…. another casualty for this year but supposedly most have committed to 2021 so the poster might be accurate. You are about 50 miles from Glacier Natl Pk as well. With a whole year to dream…..why not.
JimC says
Yes! That’s a grand idea. Fantastic lineup and pretty country. Might jut do that.
lane batot says
Heck yeah, darn good Paw Day! But Oregon only has ONE National Park???? That surprises me……
JimC says
Couple of national monuments and national historical sites.
Russ L says
Nice, Glad you had a good day
Katie Williams says
Love it!! Good on Ceili for getting back in the saddle! Love ya’ll
David Wrolson says
Just got back from a previously mentioned 4,000 mile road trip-Minnesota to Vegas-via several national parks.
Of quick note.
1) Great Basin National Park-via Highway 93-north of Vegas. Definitely a quieter park and I really enjoyed the area.
I had long looked forward to driving 93-and/or other empty roads in the Cow Counties of Nevada. Downside was that the first half to Ely was heavy truck traffic as they had been detoured over from I-15(Salt Lake to Vegas)-so that sucked.
Once we got north of that, it was everything I had hoped for-long stretches with no traffic. Also enjoyed driving through associated areas of Utah.
2) North Rim of Grand Canyon-closed due to forest fires in the Kaibab.
3) Tried to drive through Rocky Mountain National Park-found out you need reservations. Busier than hell all over that area. The Front Range of Colorado is an over-populated mess-enough said.
4)Quick visits to to 4 of the 5 southern Utah national parks. I liked Bryce Canyon the best. I can’t imagine how busy these parks are on a normal summer. Zion (while beautiful) was an absolute zoo.
5) High point of the trip was my 19 YO daughter picked a gravel road through the Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument in Utah-hiked a little ways up a small canyon. Best of all was along the drive was we saw a herd (flock?) desert bighorn ewes and lambs and a few miles farther we saw a large desert bighorn ram.
JimC says
Our previous District Ranger, now retired, came to Sisters from the Front Range. He always said that we’re about 10 years behind them. It’s well underway here. Sad to say.
David Wrolson says
There is a wonderful poster at the Sisseton (SD) sales barn where I sell my cattle. It is a bicentennial picture of the United States with various things for each state. Most interestingly, it has the 1970 (or 1976) population for each state.
I look with longing (for a lost world maybe) at the populations for all the sunbelt and western states at that time. It is really quite unbelievable, the amount of changes in those areas in my lifetime.
As I wrote in “Smoke of Africa”-that is the world that my subconscious still inhabits thanks to a set of 1970’s era encyclopedias as a child.
Beyond all that-that poster has to be worth some nice money-somewhere.