Multnomah Falls-June 3rd

First stop on our Family Road Trip is: Multnomah Falls!  I forgot that I was here half my life ago when I had just turned five.  It was a really beautiful waterfall.

 My parents climbed the mile up switch backs to the top of the waterfall.

 Here's Dad at the top.

 Also at the top is a trail to Larch Mountain.  This area is very magical with lots of moss and lichen.

 Everything is so green and lush.  Next time we plan to come back to explore more of trail #441 Larch Mountain.

 I really liked this model of Larch Mountain & Multnomah Falls.

 After our big hike, we went to Ground Breaker Brewery in Portland, where everything is wheat free!

 Then we went to spend a night in Kennedy School.  This was our last night of WiFi until we came home.

Crater Lake-June 4th

We left Kennedy School (our hotel) and drove down I-5 to Eugene.  Mom visited her old alma mater, The University of Oregon.  It was a grey day and slightly cool.

We walked around campus looking at all the new buildings.  I found it kind of boring.  We did go to Starbucks where I got four small bags of Hippeas (vegan & gluten free cheesy puffs), so that was not so bad.  After this, we drove across the Cascades to the eastern side of the mountains.  There was so much snow this year that only the southern entrance to the park was open.

 When we finally made it up to Crater Lake (elevation 7,000 ft) there was a lot of snow.  Our room wasn't ready at Crater Lake Lodge, so we waited in great room with the fire place and views of the lake.

 When we finally got our room, we brought up our stuff and went out exploring.  The light was really severe, so we wore hats and sun glasses.

 Mom's blue hair blue lake picture.

 There's Crater Lake Lodge.

 I had to keep a travel journal for my 4th grade teacher, Mr. Harlor.  I did miss a week of school for this trip.

 The lake was an awesome sight, but since there was still so much snow there wasn't much to do....

 Next stop, The Oregon Caves!

The Oregon Caves & the Chateau-June 5-6th

On Monday morning we drove the 3-1/2 hours from Crater Lake to the Oregon Caves.  The Oregon Caves are located in the very SW corner of Oregon, very close to the California State border in the Siskyou Mountain range.  The Chateau is the historic hotel built next to the Oregon Caves in 1934.  We planned to stay here the next two nights.  Night one, we stayed on the 3rd floor in a small suite in the back of the hotel.  It was ok.  My parents had to capture and release several room spiders onto the roof.  I am not a fan of sharing space with spiders.  Night 2-we moved to the rooms that you can see the windows of in this picture (left hand side, second floor-two larger windows with a little one in the middle.)

 

The Chateau had more of a rustic charm than the elegant charm of Crater Lake Lodge.

Next to the Chateau was the Chalet where the forest rangers and the cave interpretation center were located.  

 The Cave entrance is above the waterfall-we could see and hear this waterfall from our rooms.

There deer at the Oregon Caves were not afraid of us.  There is one at the top of the stairs.

 We did a lot of hiking here.  We climbed up to this view.

 The cave tour was really cool.  The Ranger told us a lot about caves in general.  The caves were made out of marble, which is baked limestone.  I saw a small brown bat too.  Here are some formations in the cave.

 There were a lot of snails and millipedes at the caves.

 My room in the Chateau.

 Mom, Dad and I went on a long hike to see a big tree, which is an old Douglas Fir.  We estimated 30 ft for the tree circumference.  It was a good hike, fortunately we did not run into any bears.