Bridges and Crater Lake

When we arrived in Florence on Monday night we did not have a motel room booked.  (Most unlike me, but fits in with Stuart's go with the flow attitude).

We picked what looked like a fairly uninspiring motel from the roadside, but fortunately found that our room backed onto the river.  It was a calm tranquil spot, we both slept really well and in the morning sat and watched all the fabulous birdlife.

Our revised plans meant that we had decided to sacrifice more lovely coastal time and head in land towards Crater Lake.  The weather forecast showed two reasonable days before bad weather returns with a vengeance.  We had read that 50% of days in Winter and Spring Crater Lake is covered with clouds, so it made sense to start the journey to Crater Lake straight away.

So Tuesday was a big driving day.  Nice weather, but we didn't really get to take advantage of it, being in the car all day.  We did however see lots of bridges, including a couple of nice covered bridges.  Without the aid of google we could only speculate as to why bridges were covered (not to protect them from snow as we concluded, but to protect the wood from the sun and the rain to make the bridges last longer, we eventually found out on wiki)

We also spent time trying to name all 52 US states, but sadly only managed 33.  We may attempt this challenge again!

Our lunch stop was in Myrtle Creek, which we had to drive around a couple of times before we found a supermarket that actually had a fruit and veg counter.  Myrtle Creek had no redeeming features on the way in, nor on the way out.  We ended up having a dashboard picnic.

Our final destination for the day was Medford.  A sleepy little town, but it worked out just fine as an overnight stopping point.  It was so sleepy it was difficult to pick a restaurant as they were all empty, so no clues as to which ones the locals viewed as the better ones.  Luckily we managed to pick one of the nicest restaurants in town - Capers, and being the only 2 customers in for the evening, the chef kept popping out to tell us all about the dishes and the ingredients and to check that we were enjoying everything. A lovely evening.

Wednesday morning, and it was an early start to get to Crater Lake.  Weather forecast was good and when we arrived we found the most perfect conditions.  Cloudless blue skies, not a breath of wind.  This has to be one of the most stunning views I have ever seen.

My poor attempt at a stitch photo (without the aid of any stitch software!)

Given the amount of snow that falls at Crater Lake (44 ft per year) the perimeter road had not yet been cleared.  (The road gets cleared at the rate of 0.25 miles per day starting in the springtime, some years they don't finish clearing until June).  This meant that we could only get to the one viewing spot, but despite this we spent a couple of hours there as we found it so hard to tear ourselves away.

I think we may have used up all our holiday luck of being in the right place at the right time!  This could not have been more perfect!

One of the leaflets gave an explantation as to how crater lake was formed, which I put into a pic collage layout.  The sixth box was used for a sneaky selfie.

Leaving Crater Lake most of the time you are driving through trees without views, but occasionally you see an amazing sight.

Our goal was to get to Diamond lake, very close to Crater Lake and stay in some peaceful lakeside lodgings.  (Fortunately, we had not pre-booked)

When we arrived there was a sea of bugs everywhere.  Not just an odd swarm, but the whole sky was filled with midges throughout the whole resort.    We didn't even open the door to ask if they had vacancies, we turned around and drove away as fast as we could.

The next major stopping place was a town called Bend, another 120 miles at the end of the long day, but we didn't care.  Diamond Lake was not an option!