Aspen Lake Lodge, Sisters, Oregon

25th Sept. - Sisters, Oregon

Another brilliant start to the day and another round of golf. We are about 40 mins. from River Terrace Pl. to Aspen Lakes Golf Course in Sisters.

A chilly start to the day but it soon warmed up to perfect golfing temperature.

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The 3 Sisters...Faith, Hope and Charity. 3 volcanic mountains, each more than 10,000ft high are part of the Cascades Mountain range. With a scattering of snow on their peaks, they endow Aspen Lakes Golf Course with an astounding vista. One can't help but pause every now and then to gaze at this magical scenery.

Well this is a first for us - you have a choice of a conventional golf cart or you can segway your game around the course. We allowed a group behind us to play through and the guy kindly allowed us to get a photo of the rig. Apparently you have to sign an indemnity to hire one of these.

Me ..trying to play golf!

Lovely Linda with a hybrid Juniper tree - look closely and you will see a pine tree  growing off it. I guess at some stage a pine seed got lodged in the tree and took hold. Could this be a new specie...the Murtaugh Junipine??

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Another picturesque hole...Robie keeping an eye out for Jeff's drive.

Terrebonne, Oregon

24th  Sept - River Terrace Place

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Well this family of Mule Deer came visiting when we were about to have breakfast..Linda's garden is fenced off to stop them from making a smorgasbord of her vegies.

The 2 younger deer were very wary but Mamma decided she was in friendly company and helped herself to water.

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Okay...Jeff and Linda are also keen golfers(hurray!), so on a quite a brisk morn we had a round at the Crooked River Golf Club.

What a scenic course....we are looking down at a chasm with the Crooked River flowing through. You might notice a white truck in the background...well, apparently a golf cart got too close to the canyon and the staff are doing repairs to the fencing.

Tom, Linda, Jeff and me ....poor Linda had a really sore knee and couldn't play, but she was a wonderful and attentive caddie.

Robie with his "roses"...we are in High Desert Country...Oregon does have it all - coast, desert, mountains.

The day ended with a magnificent sunset over the canyons at River Terrace Place.

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Sisters to Terrebonne, Oregon

23 September - Sisters, OR to Terrebonne, OR

Tom and Robie outside The Gallery restaurant at Sisters...they are good buddies.

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We've stopped at Sisters after a 2 hour journey from Salem, we are on our way to visit Linda and Jeff at River Terrace Place.   Spotted this gorgeous "pink" tree...fall is on its way.

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Jeff and Linda's getaway...what a slice of heaven.

What a glorious spot...canyons and river and absolutely gorgeous weather.

Chilling out with our hosts, as you can see Jeff and Robie are in shorts and this is late Sept.

Yellow Finch on the feeder that Linda has hanging on her patio.

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Linda harvesting corn for our dinner...eat your heart out Jamie Oliver. This garden is a treasure trove of flowers, fruits and vegies including golden coloured raspberries that were so sweet.

La Grande to Salem, Oregon

17 Sept - La Grande to Salem, Oregon

US I-84 runs alongside the mighty Columbia River Gorge(CRG)...what an absolutely stunning drive. Approaching Blalock Canyon - the town of Blalock displaced a native Indian settlement called Tawash. Some info about this canyon can be found on:

http://columbiariverimages.com/Regions/Places/blalock_canyon.html

There is an interesting letter from pioneers Lewis and Clark included.

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TheUnion Pacific travelling along the 75 mile long scenic highway of the CRG. Blalock is one of its stations.

The Columbia River Gorge carves its way through the Cascade Mountain range, forming a boundary between the states of Washington and Oregon.

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Low clouds over the Cascades. This range of mountains extend from the southern part of British Columbia, Washington state, Oregon through to northern California. The highest peak on the Cascades is of course, Mt. Rainer standing at 14,411 feet.

There are more than 60 dams along the great Columbia River watershed in the USA and Canada. The water is mainly harnessed for hydro electricity. Some interesting info on the Columbia on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dams_in_the_Columbia_River_watershed

Me and Robie at the Stockman's Cafe at OR 99, Junction City.  This little gem is in the same building as the Eugene Livestock Auction . You just have to ignore the bovine odours permeating the hallway to the Cafe but this place has  real all beef burgers and the fries are the best I've had on this trip....but wait...they have gluten free bread and desserts at this place!

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Back home with Robie...Felix and Oscar (Tom and Robie) checking something on the laptop before breakfast.

Robie's breakfast special..ham, asparagus, poached egg with gluten free hollandaise sauce...what a guy! Wearing my "fat girl" clothes now!

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Got a pic of this blue jay as I was ironing one morning..pretty!

La Grande, Oregon

15 - 17 Sept. - La Grande, Oregon

Eagles Hot Lakes RV Park - nestled at the foot of hills, this lovely rv park offers a hot spa with water from the local hot springs.

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There were reports of rain coming but I guess we were on the leeward side of the hills as we got none. 

The hot springs lake beside Eagles Hot Lakes RV park.

Spotted some lovely autumn colours on this tree at the park.

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El  Erradero....a surprisingly good Mexican restaurant at La Grande - Tom and I had the Crab Enchiladas. We had Senor Speedy Gonzalez for our waiter...he moved like greased lightning. Before he knew it, Tom was on to his second Margarita. The restaurant was a riot of colourful murals..lovely!

Getting ready to hit the road - we are bound for Salem. A rather chilly start to the day...low 40's but the wind chill was much lower.

Hagerman to La Grande Oregon

14th Sept. - Hagerman, ID to La Grande, Oregon

After overnighting in sleepy Hagerman, where we woke up to the smell of fresh bovine byproducts (how can an animal that eats only grass and grains smell so bad). It was a chilly 1deg C morning.

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Its another longish drive - 4 1/2 hours to La Grande, OR.  Our route takes us through the Bitteroot Mountains which sits in both Montana and the pan handle of Idaho. Highest elevation is 10,157 ft.

Large tracts of the mountains bear the scars of grass fires that had swept through.

Yellowstone to Hagerman Idaho

13th Sept - Yellowstone, Montana to Hagerman, Idaho

We are on the road again - some lovely autumn colours along the way to Hagerman, ID

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US 20 runs alongside Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. This park sits in the Snake River plains in central Idaho.

We stopped for smoko at a Rest Area where some information about the area was available.

3 lava fields and Sagebrush steppe grasslands occupy an area of approx. 1,100 square miles to form this park.

Lava like ranges along the highway.

Mammoth Springs & Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park

10th September - Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone Nat. Park

Mammoth Hot Springs, located on the northern part of YNP, is a complex of hot springs that sits on a hill of travertine.

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The Upper Terrace of MHS looking like a snowfield. Elevation of MHS is 6,200ft. so one could be fooled into thinking its a snowfield.

Some information about travertine.

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An amazing landscape with pools of hot spring water trapped on this crater like landscape. As we are coming out of summer, there didn't appear to be as much surface water.

Glorious colours!

Making the rail guards safe for visitors..these workers are working at an altitude of around 6,000ft. Water takes a little longer to boil and a short walk leaves one puffing if one is carrying extra weight from all the excessive dining. Getting pretty close to breaking out the "Fat Girl" clothes.

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Don't expect to get anywhere fast at YNP...we spotted a herd of deer on our back from MHS, so did heaps of other people, there's invariable a stream of vehicles slowing down to take photos.

Okay these locals always have right of way and some of them sure take their own sweet time about crossing the road!

 We decided to visit Old Faithful another time before we leave YNP. Old Faithful is a cone geyser and was the first geyser to be named at YNP in 1870. It erupts every 35 to 120 mins. Check out the smoke from a forest fire on the right hand side of the photo.

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It is around 6pm and the bison herds are on the move.....still no sign of bears!

We had to wait almost 10-15 mins. for this herd to cross the road...this male bison was going back and forth guiding his herd across. When we finally managed to squeeze pass him (he was doing some really deep rumbling) we saw what the hold up was.

A mamma bison nursing her calf down the embankment and he was just making sure they'd cross safely!.....aaww..ain't he sweet!