Dad and Son and Micro Brew in a can!

Glenn sent me this photo this evening via his blackberry. He is hiking the mountain range in the background with his son Micah. Two things about this is funny to me, one he took his blackberry with him and he has cell reception; two Glenn found micro brew in a can. Supposedly it is lighter to pack in then bottles, OK!

I hope they have fun and the weather cooperates for them the entire weekend. If only you knew how much my Husband loves this area of the Cascades and he is always so excited when he can accomplish that climb just one more time.

Have fun and see you on Sunday.

Sleep well, Betty

Crystal Crane Hotsprings

Welcome!

Our Cabin!

I never really thought I would come to enjoy Eastern Oregon as much as I have. When I was growing up our vacations were going to places like Eastern Oregon looking at cattle ranches, at the time I found this very boring and just dreaded the driving. But now I just love it. There is so many adventures you can get into with out even trying. Hotsprings at 7:30am the water was great.

Crystal Crane Hot springs is about 2 1/2 hours from our house if you take the main road. I will explain later in my post. If you want to go online and take a look here is the website, http://www.cranehotsprings.com/ the water is perfect, the cabins are fun and the nights are dark.

The best swimming hole ever!

The 2nd chapter to this adventure is the drive back home, I thought it would be fun to follow the streets and trips GPS on our laptop. So I followed the route on the roads that I think no one has been on for months maybe longer. The route was very indirect probably 35 miles out of the way but I think it was the 3 hours it took to go the 35 miles that got a little intense.

Believe it or not there is a road in this photo, a GPS told me so!

For the record the roads listed on the program were not roads at times you could hardly see the ruts where tracks had been. But what fun it was going right down the center of some alkali flats, it made you feel like you were in a part from a mad max film.

Glad I packed a lunch I don't see a resturant anywhere.

Smiling now that we are almost on a paved road, after 3 hours of back country driving!

Old Makenzie Hwy - Dee Wright Observatory

Somewhere on the Old McKenzie Pass enjoying a late summer date with Glenn, Andrew and Debbie. This is the fire I was suppose to keep going while the others walked around the lake.

What a beautiful lake.
going around the lake
Andrew going up the trail to the Dee Wright Observatory
This is a mountain dial that sits in the middle of the obervatory. The dial points to the mountain with the name and the elevation. As you can see from the photo this dial has been there awhile.
Walking back down to the road.
Interpretive Center at the end of the trail, this story board talked about the woman who settled in Oregon during the early days. This just fascinates me, I can't believe the life they lead let alone how these woman raised a family.

Broken Top and Glenn

Broken Top, trail is on the right looking at the photo.

Every year my Husband Glenn takes 3 days to back pack into the wilderness and climb broken top. I believe this is one of his favorite places and yes I mean on top of the mountain. I have I think 6 different photos of the same man sitting on top of the mountain smiling the same smile. I have to hand it to him he walks every lunch hour rain or shine or in our case snow or shine so he can stay fit for this climb.

Whispy Clouds

This is one trip I don't take with him, I am not into climbing like that I don't really like high places and loose rocks. The photos he brings home are beautiful and I can only imagine what it would look like seeing it for myself. One year Glenn took Micah his son and Casey my son with him and I often think of what Casey told me when he tried to describe a butterfly hatch he was in while sitting on top of this mountain is sounded so surreal, I know that moment in time will be in Casey's thoughts forever. This year Glenn's oldest son Andrew and Glenn's brother and his son went with him and it sounds like they have a great time.

The Hikers!

Glenn I know you are already to go again and can hardly wait for next years climb so just keep doing what you are doing to prepare and have I told you lately I am so proud of you?



As always Glenn brought me back beautiful photos so I wanted to share them with you, so sit back and enjoy the scenery.

I wonder what Andrew is thinking.

I bet it was a cold winter for this "pop top"

Onward to the top!

Hang on Dear Brother your almost there.

What a view

Now there's that smile I'm talking about..

It doesn't get much better then this, does it Glenn.

Family Jeeps Chapter V

My Husband and I both have Jeeps, Glenn bought his Jeep in 2005 and approx. 2 months later I got mine. His looked like he was having so much fun I wanted one of my own. We are not "rock hoppers" by any means but we do like to take our Jeeps off road, I know that Glenn tests the capability of his Jeep more then I do mine but I guess that is why they are "trail rated" isn't it.
The 1st sight of sun Glenn has the top off his wrangler and it stays like that until fall. During this trip Glenn took the doors off and put down the windshield we all liked to ride the mountain roads with the wrangler like this.

Lisa and I took some time in the liberty (my jeep), and went through the mountains on a make shift road that lead to no where, it was pretty exciting to be on a trail and not know where you would end up. Honestly I think we were on the back side of our camp but I will never know because we couldn't see through the forest and it was fun anyways. Glenn likes it when people like to ride in his jeep, Lisa and Paul's kids are always the 1st to get in if Glenn is going to ride up the hill side they even have different areas named where they have been. I will not mention the names at this time, but you won't see me going to the "killing fields" any time soon!


See Emily on the right, she is in the back seat holding her cell phone and bullets???

Below is Emily again holding on with her Dad looking to see where the next tree is and what is Glenn doing sleeping I thought he was driving????

I thought they were going to run over our tiki torches but they missed them ...

Off they go until the next time, and I am sure now is not soon enough.

Exploring the mountains in a JEEP!

It doesn't get any better then that!

Wild Flowers Chapter IV

During our camping trip to the Ochoco Mountains we were able to enjoy the wild flowers. One has to remember with wild flowers their life span could possibly be just one day to maybe even just hours so while I was there I tried to enjoy all I saw. Next time I will be taking a wild flower book so I can identify them. These photos are just a snapshot of what I got to see in real life but the photos are still enjoyable to look at. Wild mountain rose bloomed the day we left, hundreds of buds still waiting to bloom when I took this photo.
Morning Glory likes to be cradled in the rocks, they have a hint of pink on the outer edges of the petals, you can hardly see it in the photo.
This blue flower is small and weed/sagebrush like. As you can see they also like rocks and they were in the gravel all over the mountain roads.

This is a field of pink blossoms, they were everywhere, covering as much dirt as they could. You have to wonder how in the world do they make it without water, I probably asked my camping partner 100 times that same question, she would just shake her head and wonder also. I got her into taking as many photos as I did, I hope she enjoys them as much as I do.
Oh My Gosh! Daisy's and Grass what a great combo. Seeing this sight made you want to run through it just like in the movies. BREATH TAKING!
Yellow Daisy's and red dirt what a great contrast.
*Indian paint brush*

That is all that needs to be said about this flower :)



It is hard to not take the time you spend somewhere for granted. I thought about these flowers alot last night when I got home from work, I then realized I wanted "wild flowers" to be the next chapter of my vacation. Here is why, a Lady I work with says to me "I can't wait for Saturday", I knew she had it off so I asked her what she was doing? She tells me that she is going on a Guided wild flower hike in the Ochoco Mountain Range for 6 hours. I thought to myself I just spent 5 days there and there is someone out there that gives guided trips to talk and look at the wild flowers for a job, WOW, I told her I just spent 5 days up there and she was really excited to talk about it some more but we got busy and that is where the conversation ended. When we left the store I told her to stop by the Ranger Station and get a brochure on the different kinds of wild flowers and by all means don't forget your camera. I guess I can consider myself lucky to have spent the time I did in this most incredible area of the State of Oregon!



next chapter: Our Family JEEPS!

Rafting Day!

Devils Lake located on the Cascade Lakes HWY, or if you are a local Century Drive. In the back ground you can see a lava flow, this area is so beautiful especially from a blow up boat, you can just drift the whole day away. This is Glenn talking to his friend Paul, Paul is telling Glenn that there is a fine if you are caught in a boat with out a life jacket. We did forget ours today but in the future I will have mine with me does my Husband look like the type that will remember his?
This is were the hiking trail around the lake which is currently covered by snow, can you see the snow it is actually laying on top of the water, how cool is that.
You guessed it this is our feet in the snow on the trail by the lake! The temp. was 85 degrees boy were we warm so this felt great. I am the one with the toe nail polish on. I took this while going down the road in Glenn's jeep right before the thunder storm, wow! I just love it when he takes the top off the jeep Glenn thinks the fun just begins when the top comes off there is nothing better then cruising down a mountain road and being able to look at the sky at the same time.