Crossing Oregon

2023-07-18
OR

It was another chilly night, getting down into the mid 40's in our tent. I think it gets so cool when we are above 7,000 feet, or maybe because cool nights follow us around this trip. We slept in a bit as it's a light day so the temperature was around 50 as we packed up the tent and headed out.

Once we got going, we visited some of the viewpoints on Crater Lake. This park is definitely well worth seeing, but it is a one- or two-day park. We attempted to drive around the full loop, but most of the eastern section is closed for snow removal and road repairs.

However, we saw what we could, including a one mile hike to some viewpoints for the Phantom Ship, the lake's other (less famous) island. The morning light is better for the islands.

There was a power outage at the park, so amenities were largely unavailable. We don't need much so this didn't affect us other than a lack of coffee, although I felt bad for the rangers manning the entry booths as the day got warmer. However, it meant that when we left the park we had to drive blind for maybe 30 minutes before we had enough signal to get google maps working for us. We tried to keep the car pointed roughly east, but it's an overland route and a wrong turn could add a lot of distance.

We then took off across the Oregon desert. I didn't realize how dry the eastern side of the state was, although eastern Washington should have given me a hint. We drove long, straight stretches of highway with nothing but sagebrush in sight. We did this for a couple hours, turning occasionally as Google commanded, until we reached Burns which is a small town near where the Bureau of Land Management has their Wild Horse Roundup Grounds. It has the only hotels in the area so I had picked it as an overnight stop. We dried the tent which had a little bit of moisture from this morning; it took just a few minutes in the dry desert air. Then it's a low-key evening in the room.