The Bend Adventure Continued

While some fantastic Moroccan-inspired food and delicious local meals (check out this great non-profit restaurant) were consumed and very much enjoyed - no pictures were taken. Suffice it to say, if you could only eat in Bend (and Portland) the rest of your days, you would be more than satisfied!

And if after your meals you wanted to row a boat on a crystal clear, blue-green lake and take in some enormous waterfalls, all you'd have to do is a drive 40 or so minutes to Clear lake and Sahalie falls.

Our vessel

Half our crew

View from the boat

The bottom of the lake - the natural result of the damming of a spring
many thousands of years ago

Mossy seeps

Enjoying the shade and a bit of mist

Sahalie falls

Back in Bend we got the chance to visit Nate at his job at the Sun River nature center where he works as a naturalist and one can see many rescued wildlife, view the sun through special telescopes and get more familiar with the plants and animals of central Oregon.

Spreading the good news

In addition to the Nature center, we visited the High Desert museum, a fantastic living history, cultural museum and nature center. There we learned a lot about some of the Native peoples, who have called and still call this region of the Northwest their home for thousands of year,the environmental and cultural issues facing central Oregon and got to be close to some amazing plants and animals.

Spokane men, 1860s. One of many tribes with deep roots in the region

Coulee dam on the Columbia - the largest electric-producing power plant in the US that caused the decimation of the salmon in that region and the forced relocation of thousands

An injured Bald eagle in recuperation

The river otter - the most endearing animal we've ever met

A great map of the Deschutes river basin

On a separate day we made a trip out to Smith rock - a grand place to go for a hike, climb sheer rock-faces and cool off in the river.

A river does run through it

Lou on the trail

One again we were so grateful for family and the chance to visit in such a special place. After promises to visit again soon (which we plan to keep) we set to planning our final route home. After much consideration we decided to switch directions completely- saving southern Oregon, California and Yuma for another trip. East across Oregon, then south through Idaho, Utah and northern Arizona would be our new route and we soon found out that some of the most spectacular vistas yet were soon to come.