Sunday, August 13, 2017

Oregon Update: Sea, Sand and Smoke

A lot has been going on here at the park recently, but I'm still a bit behind on writing about what I've been doing the past several weeks so I'll give a bit of a recap of that first. 

Me in my official Park Service uniform

A few weeks ago, I took a trip with some of my coworkers to Bend. I had been to Bend once before but just on a day trip to get a feel for the town and do some thrift and grocery shopping, so this time we had a better chance to explore. We checked out a craft market, the farmer's market (which was amazing! I love farmer's markets and this one was one of the best I've been to), had some Thai food, and then went on an adventure to find a campsite and float the river. Our original plan was to put our tubes into the river, float downstream a ways and then get out and return to the car, but once we found a campground that had availability, we were able to get a site right on the water and just decided to tie up our floaties and sit in them without going anywhere. It turned out to be even more fun and less hassle with transportation. The water was freezing and any body part that touched the water for long enough went numb, but it was worth it!

Relaxing in my tube on the Deschutes River

The next day we took it easy and did a short hike up a hill with panoramic views (I can't remember the name now), and then took a tour of Deschutes Brewery. It wasn't the most fun for me since being gluten-free has pretty much ruined breweries, so in the future I'll have to try to convince people to go to cider companies instead. :)

Fast forward a couple weeks and all of the sudden the whole park seems to be on fire. We have two actively burning wildfires in the park right now, and at the beginning of the month the smoke was terrible! There were days that we could barely see across the lake because of the smoke, and none of wanted to go outside so we did a lot of office work.

So smokey!

You can barely see the other side of the caldera

View of the smoke from the lodge.

These pictures make the fire seem a bit closer than it actually is, but it did get very close to the Rim Road around the lake, causing the road to be closed for about a week.

I didn't actually see this but my coworker took this picture at the height of the fire activity. Photo credit: Katie Ripstein.

So what do you do when you can barely breath or see because of smoke? You take a trip to the coast, of course! This was my second trip to the coast, but there's plenty to see so I didn't mind at all! It was cloudy and chilly most of the time (apparently the glorious sunny weather during out first coast trip was unusual), but we were all just happy we could breath fresh air.


Dune hiking!



The Oregon coast amazes me. You can be walking on sand dunes and all of the sudden there are conifer trees!



Our campsite was right on a lake

Sunset Bay State Park

Sunset Bay

Luckily for us, by the time we got back from the coast the smoke had subsided to manageable levels, and we were told that we had missed the very worst day of it. Now there's always a general haze or smoke hanging in the air, and a few days have been worse than others, but overall it's been fine. 


You can just barely see the other side of the caldera here

The haze does make some cool views sometimes

Phantom Ship through a haze of smoke

And the smoke didn't stop us from getting to go out on the lake! We had two days last week that we got to survey the lake shore for weeds, which included a ride on the research boat to the survey sites. I love boats, and it was amazing to see the lake so up close and personal. 

Boat ride!


Such amazing views from the lake





I think I say this in every post, but I will never get tired of looking at this lake!

Amazing view of Llao Rock

And guess what? Yes, that's snow in August!

I have a feeling the snow won't melt completely before it snows again

Wizard Island

You can't ask for a better office than this!

And the best part about lake days: swimming!

In addition to wonderful lake days in which we got to go swimming in the cleanest, clearest water you can imagine during work time, the next day I got paid to hike trails and survey for weeds. Can't complain about that. I have the best job!

View from the top of Mt Scott, the highest point in the park


View from the trail up to Garfield Peak. The water was amazingly bright blue that day.

And I'll finish this update with a picture of my crew, minus Katie who is taking the picture, at Plaikni Falls during our hike to survey for weeds.


I'm continuing to love it here and trying to remind myself that I won't be here forever and that I need to appreciate every day I get to spend in this beautiful place. I can't believe it's the middle of August already, the time is flying by. I'll be here until the end of October, so I certainly have time to see and do many more exciting things, and I will be sure to write about any new adventures.

No comments:

Post a Comment