Yakima Canyon, WA
Yakima Canyon was the first ‘scenically noteworthy’ part of our trip aside from the drive through the Cascades. And the Ellensburg area. Which are both nice in themselves.
Anyway there’s a nice little river running through the area, alongside Canyon Rd, as well as probably half a dozen parks.
Hood River, OR
Hood River is a very cool town on the Columbia River. We didn’t stay long, though. We drove south on route 197 to Maupin and then down to Bend. Plenty of interesting geography and scenery in the meantime though.
One such interesting geographical landmark is the Crooked River and the High Bridge that crosses it.
The Crooked River High Bridge
B for size comparison
Bend, OR
Just a little south of the Crooked River High Bridge is Redmond, OR and Smith Rock state park.
Smith Rock State Park
Smith Rock kind of comes out of nowhere, but it’s right off the main road and is worth a visit.
Smith Rock State Park
Crater Lake, OR
We got in to Crater Lake pretty late - probably between 10:30pm and 11:00pm. What this meant was tired, foggy driving next to a sheer cliff that you couldn’t see.
Unfortunately I didn’t save the dash cam footage in time, but needless to say it was anxiety producing. Anyway, these pictures are from the next two days when we could actually see where we were going.
Sitting in the back of the car. I went to the University of Washington btw
What you would see if you were behind us looking at the lake
The Lodge is in this picture as well as Mt McLoughlin (I think it's Mt McLoughlin anyway)
View south from the loop road