An Old Friend

Crater Lake was love at first sight. We always have to stop by when within a hundred miles. Plus, we have lots of good friends still working there. This was a typical May day at 7,000 feet in the Oregon Cascades...thirty degrees, snowy, a fifteen foot base of snow---heaven! The rim drive is still closed, but they are working on it, so we walked down it a ways then snowshoed a bit.

The lake was almost completely fogged in.

A few sun rays shone through.

A touch of blue poked through and began clearing a path to show the lake and all its beauty.

The rustic Crater Lake Lodge.

The snow continued through the night and the next day.

What a lovely place all together.

Oregon Coast

What a day on the Oregon Coast! After Crater Lake we stopped in Eugene to get new tires and got talked into (very hard) going to the coast just one more day. The weather forecast did not seem hopeful with 70 percent chance of rain, but we went anyways. We had beautiful blue skies till late in the afternoon, then spotty showers came and went. We drove about one hundred miles between Florence and Newport, which is where we stayed the night with our friend, Dannielle. What a great beach you have Dannielle (better than Tom's ;)!

We stopped at favorite spot to watch the harbor seals.

Love the spotted baby seals!

We have dueling cameras!

Huge crashing waves!

Alaska Bound

Andrew and I are once again Alaska bound! We have four and a half months to play in the far north and we are determined to make the most of it. We have family to base camp with and help build a house with (theirs not ours unfortunately), a twelve day mountaineering course in Denali National Park to attend, the raft trip of a lifetime to live out in September on the Kobuk River in the Arctic, and tons of fun, spontaneous things in between to keep us busy. We plan on being in Alaska by June first, so we'll make a few stops in between. But no lingering in Canada this year, we'll spend a few days in Oregon at Crater Lake, maybe the coast (again) who knows, then bookin' it to Alaska! :)

Taste of the Eastern Sierra's

After a few days at the beach we drove over to the Easter Sierra's to help our good friends move into a new house. After the move we rewarded ourselves with some hiking up the Oak Creek drainage. What a beautiful hike! And this is just minutes from their new house.

The trail started out in the open, then weaved through the trees (which were victim of a wildfire about four years ago.)

We crossed the creek a couple of times. The dogs were very happy about that.

The water was high so we ended up with wet feet during the second creek crossing.

Headed back down towards the Owens Valley. Another incredible hike that we have added to the list to come back and venture further on some day.

Sierra Wildflowers

The Lupine is in full bloom right now in the Sierras. What a delight to see!

The Boss Dog is always photogenic.

The Globe Mallow was a nice treat as well...eye candy

The banks above the creek were choked full of lupine.

A little pick thistle too.

The white lupine really stands out.