Beautiful Lakes of Southern Oregon

            Leaving Bend behind (at least for a few weeks) we headed to our next camping spot, just ½ hour away in  

La Pine, Oregon. We purposely wanted to be fairly close to civilization in case we missed something  

during our shakedown week. As it  turned out, we needed to head back to Bend once to get a few essentials  

and to stock up on food for our week in Diamond Lake. Our campsite in La Pine was nothing to write home 

about--its best feature was the view of the meadow out the back. But the La Pine area presented a couple of  

good exploration opportunities!

Our back window view

First we set out on our bikes to explore LaPine State Park. The park is perched on the Deschutes River and has many miles of little-used trails. We particularly like one trail that followed the river for quite a ways and ended up in the state park campground, which was pretty nice. There were many overlooks with spectacular views of the river and surrounding forest.

A  little further away, we spent a day exploring parts of the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. The Cascade

Range in Oregon and Washington is volcanic in origin and because of  that, it is different from most other American

mountain ranges like the Sierra Nevada and the Tetons. Instead of a line of peaks and ridges closely grouped, the

Cascades feature many isolated volcanic cones, some of which are still active (e.g. Mt. St. Helens).  In addition

to these peaks like Mt. Shasta, Mt. Ranier, Mt. Hood, Mt. Bachelor, there are many lava flows, cinder cones and

other volcanic remnants. The Newberry Caldera is one such volcanic landscape. We hiked the rim of a crater, now

grown over with forest, and had overlook views of lakes, long extinct volcanos and a massive flow of mostly

pure obsidian.

Paulina Lake

Paulina Peak

The obsidian lava flow seen from above

After a week in La Pine, we headed south to revisit a favorite national park in southern Oregon.  Crater Lake is one
of the most beautiful spots in all of  North America.  Nearly perfectly round, surrounded by snow capped mountains
and colored the deepest blue imaginable, Crater Lake takes the breath away.  Formed only 7,700 years ago (a milli-
second in geologic time), the lake is what is left of Mount Mazama, which erupted and collapsed spectacularly into
a magma chamber, leaving a hole thousands of feet deep.  The area receives one of the highest snowfall  totals in the
country, averaging 45 FEET per year; so over centuries, the hole was filled with water. No streams flow into it or
out of it to cloud the water, so it is spectacularly clear. The pure water absorbs all the colors in sunlight except the
purest blue, which is reflected back to our eyes. We hiked part way up Mt. Garfield (stopped by a treacherous
ice field across the trail) and visited many overlooks along the rim. We also checked out a historic lodge built in
1910 that is still a resort hotel today.

Crater Lake

Thousand-year-old bristle cone pine tree

Crater Lake Lodge

There is no place for us to camp in Crater Lake National Park, so we spent the week at nearby Diamond Lake. While

it is no match for it’s more famous sibling, Diamond Lake had charms and attractions of its own. It is flanked by a

few beautiful mountains and has a wonderful paved bike trail around the whole lake. We took advantage of that trail

a few times and really enjoyed the views and the thrill of winding through the forest with the freedom of bicycles. 

Our campground was practically empty for much of our stay and was a peaceful oasis in the woods (which we unfor-

tunately shared with a significant  population of mosquitoes).  

Mt. Bailey from the Diamond Lake bike trail

Mt. Thielsen from Diamond Lake

Pretty meadows are home to thirsty mosquitoes!

Tiny waterfall along the bike trail

Being in an extremely isolated area during the new moon presented the opportunity for me to explore my Pixel

phone’s night photography powers.  While not as powerful  or versatile as my former “real” cameras, it still did a

passable job of capturing the night sky wonders!

Milky Way long exposure with Pixel 9 Pro XL

This is a shot from 2016 when I was a more serious photographer. I was taking a night photography workshop at

Crater Lake.