Thursday - Today was our first day to explore this beautiful part of Central Oregon. We started out by meeting and visiting with Brenda's sister and her husband, Roxanne and Ken, and picking up our mail that we had sent to their address. We had a very nice 2 1/2 hour visit with them, getting a tour of their back yard where Roxanne has created a couple of fantasy gardens, the first one of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
With Ken's masonry expertise, there are very nice rock accents all around the back yard. Then, he took us to see his rock collection!
And that was just what was outside. He also has a shed full of rocks, separated into different categories. I think he has 4 different-sized rock tumblers, and all of them were running. I have an interest in rock collecting, but this was rather daunting. I think I will stick with just picking up the pretty ones and putting them in a jar or something. We concluded our visit with coffee and cookies that Roxanne had baked that morning, then we separated from Collins and Marilyn and headed over to Sisters and the McKenzie-Santiam Scenic Byway. Collins and Marilyn also drove over to Sisters but they did not continue the scenic drive and we didn't see them again until we got back to camp.
We were quickly in view of the snow-capped mountains, and on this drive we supposedly saw the peaks of nine Cascade Mountains (I didn't keep track). I think these first ones were the Sisters -- North, Middle and South.
We saw one that stood taller than all the rest and we thought it was Mt. Hood, but it turned out to be Mt. Jefferson. Hood is a little further away. But it was pretty magnificient.
As we continued along, we came to the McKenzie Pass-Santiam Pass in the Williamette National Forest. There was an observatory here that we climbed, and we could see the surrounding mountains easily from here. They had glass-less windows through the walls that identified what we were seeing.
We drove past awesome lava beds that went on for miles.The Observatory is surrounded by a 65-square-mile lava field, an ancient volcano cone, and lava craters.
Three Sisters Mountains.
The peaks of Mount Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack, Mount Washington, North Sister and Middle Sister can all be seen from here. I guess on a very clear day you can also see Mount Hood but we couldn't see it today.
Joe and I walked to the top of the observatory, but Dave and Mazie stayed below and just waved at us from the parking lot. (Mazie has on a red shirt)
We continued our drive, we passed Scott Lake, which was supposed to reflect the Three Sisters Mountains, but we couldn't see the reflection.
The literature stated that as we continued on, "the forest almost engulfs the highway," and we could definitely see that. We felt "engulfed" for several miles.
Finally, just before the end of our drive, we came upon our first Oregon waterfalls. These were Koosah and Sahalie Falls. It was pretty hot today, but when we got in the mist coming off the falls, the temperature definitely dropped.
Dave got chilly and went back to the car, but the three of us hiked on down to the lower falls. At the bottom, it got warm again. I finally found a spot I could get to the water so I did get my toes wet here.
There were several places the water cascaded down 6 to 10 foot drops in a cascade.
I think the upper falls was Koosah, and this one, the lower falls, was Sahalie. (I should have written this blog last night when we got back, by now I can't remember some of this stuff.)
We started back up our hike. The path was good, sometimes with steps, but it was about 1/2 mile each way.
Once back to the car, we completed our Scenic Byway and headed back into Sisters, a cute little touristy town with lots of shops. We had seen an ice cream shop in one of the booklets we had, so we hunted that up and had a little treat before our drive back to the campground.
This was a pretty impressive scenic drive. It was a good day, we saw some beautiful sights. But it was a full day so we were glad to get back to camp.
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