From our campground in Redmond, we are heading straight west to the quaint little town of Sisters, Oregon. This is a town with a western theme that we think we would really enjoy. But we drove right through it this morning on our way to start the McKenzie Pass-Santiam Pass Scenic Byway loop. The loop is 82 miles long, and our first stop this morning is a brief one at Suttle Lake. This looks like a place we could spend all day, but the best of the loop is ahead so we have to leave it.
We had hoped for blue skies, but the smoke has landed here in the Cascades. Our view of the very pointy Mouth Washington is hazy from the smoke.
Even though the skies are gray and distant views are hazy, our view of things close-by are very clear. When we made the stop to see Lost Lake, we could plainly see the lava tube where water drains out of this lake. This it is a healthy big lake in the spring when the snow melt fills it up. But by this time of the summer the water has drained away into the underground lava tubes so that Lost Lake is lost.
We're gaining in elevation as we're driving this loop, and we soon found ourselves going over the 4,817-foot Santiam Pass that this scenic byway is named after. Mark loves big trees, and our next stop is a little off our planned loop. He had read about a grove of old growth evergreens that make Denisa look quite small. But you can still see her red blouse at the base of these trees that have never been logged.
We walked the entire 1-mile trail looking up at the tops of those trees.
We know that we are in God's wonders when we wander through these giant trees.
We've had our forest hike, so now it's time to have our planned lake stop. The parking lot is already full, but we found a spot to squeeze in and we inflated the kayak. We are loving Clear Lake!
It comes by that name honestly. No matter how deep we dunk the oars, we can see them clearly.
In fact, we can see clear to the bottom of this deep lake. It's a natural lake that was formed when a volcano erupted and the lava sealed off the stream. The old growth trees that were standing here at the time can still be seen under the clear water.
It's hard to take a picture of a lake color, but this one is a beautiful turquoise blue.
We mentioned to each other that this would be a great lake to snorkel because it was so clear. Then we noticed several scuba divers that must have thought the same thing. They were entering the water as we paddled by.
We noticed that the divers had on full wet suits, including gloves and head gear. That's because the water here in the mountains is a crisp 43 degrees this morning. That's why we mentioned it, but quickly dismissed the idea of snorkeling ourselves. We guess the ducks that live here are used to those temperatures, but their little webbed feet must be a little chilly paddling around this morning.
After two hours of circling the entire lake on this beautiful weather day, we pulled ourselves away from Clear Lake and headed a few miles down the road to our next stop to Sahalie Falls.
It's hard to tell just how big a waterfall is, without someone in the picture that lets your eyes gauge size. Can you see Mark in the above picture near the bushes by the top of the waterfall? If not, we'll zoom in to show you Mark, and illustrate that this is a very big waterfall.
Denisa climbed up to the top of the waterfall too, and then Mark took this picture of her standing on the rock ledge that the waterfall had carved. Later she would see that there was nothing but air underneath that ledge.
By scrambling up past that ledge, we could see the McKenzie River rushing beside our trail towards the falls.
Sahalie Falls is the beginning of a 2.6-mile loop trail that brought us beside many different waterfalls of different sizes and shapes. This little falls emptied into a churning pond of blue water
This is a great hike, shaded from the sunshine, with falls to entertain us, and logs for Mark to walk.
Even though most of the falls are un-named, we did know the name of the second big one. This is Koosah Falls.
Since this is a loop hike, after crossing a bridge over the river, we get to Koosah from the other side. This time Denisa hiked ahead to be in the picture at the top of the falls.
We zoomed in the picture below so you can see her and get some perspective of the size of the waterfall.
This is a fun little hike, and we have wandered into more of God's wonders!
While Mark likes to climb trees and walk on trees, it's not often that you find a totally hollow tree that you can look through.
We have finished the loop, that brought us back to Sahalie Falls. We found a little trail that would bring us to the bottom of the falls. It's hard to tell, but Denisa is getting very wet from the spray as she stands for this picture.
She's getting so wet, that her hands are soaked. That means her phone wouldn't open to her wet finger print. So even though she is trying frantically to take this picture, she can't do it. Mark had gone even closer, so he's really getting soaked as he waits for that picture.
It was kinda nice to be wet, as we headed down the road a couple more miles towards our final hike of the day. We don't have shade and we're hiking among the lava rocks on this warm day that topped out in the 70s. So being a little damp was a good thing.
It's a boring 2.4-mile hike through lava rocks to get to our destination--Tamolitsch Pool. We could see that iridescent blue water from the top of the cliff, but now we have to find a way to scramble down to it.
It was a struggle, but we finally got down that steep cliff to stand right beside the water mirroring the trees above us.
Even though the formal name is Tamolitsch Pool, this little natural body of water is usually referred to simply as "The Blue Pool." Just like Clear Lake, it is perfectly clear.
We've hiked over 9 miles so far today, and we're a long ways from the pick-up. We decided that we could use some cold water therapy on our feet.
This water stays a constant 37 degrees, and we can say that you can only leave your foot in the water for about 4 seconds before it starts hurting from the cold.
So we think these guys jumping into the water have to be completely crazy!
Our scenic byways guide explains that this pool is the result of a volcanic eruption that formed from a "volcanic oddity" that caused the McKenzie River to disappear underground through a lava tube for three miles, and then reappear here to form the Blue Pool.
The Blue Pool is certainly another of God's wonders! As we're hiking back to the pickup our legs are certainly feeling the twelve miles we've walked today.
We got to Clear Lake at 11:30 this morning, and now we are just 7 miles down the road at Blue Pool at 7:45 p.m. Those 7 miles took us over eight hours! We're going to have to pick up some speed if we're ever going to finish this 82-mile loop! We were back on the road, and when we turned back to the east onto Highway 242 we found that it was a narrow winding strip of pavement through the trees. We mentioned that it was good that it was still light outside, because driving this road in the dark would be really tricky!
We traveled up over McKenzie Pass, and the trees abruptly were replaced by miles of dark lava that stretched over 65 square miles. Our guidebook says that "it's one of the most remarkable examples of volcanic activity in North America." Some of that lava rock was put to use when the CCC constructed the Dee Wright Observatory in 1935.
As we looked out the windows of the observatory, we were looking through the smoky haze of twilight.
The guidebook says we should have amazing views of the surrounding mountains--like that pointy Mt. Washington that is only 5 miles away.
We had hoped to get good views of "The Three Sisters"--three volcanic mountains that are the namesake for the town of Sisters, Oregon, that we drove through at the start of our day today. But the sisters are shy this evening, not showing their faces through the smoky haze.
Guess what? It was almost dark when we got through with our last stop of the day at the observatory. We still had the rest of the loop drive, plus the 30-mile trip back to Redmond. It's hard to get any sympathy from others when we work over-time like this. But we had a long and full day of wandering God's wonders over the McKenzie/Santiam Pass Byway today. We might just call in "tired" tomorrow and take the day off.
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