Overlooking the Truckee River and Highway 89 from Sawtooth Trail.
With landscaping season starting to wind down, Nancy is getting a little free time here and there, so we went for a ride on the Sawtooth Trail after work.
Sawtooth is a nice little 10-mile loop, and Nancy hadn’t ridden it yet this year.
Salt Creek Falls (286’), just west of Willamette Pass summit.
The fastest route back to Tahoe is through Mt. Shasta City, but Nancy had never been to Crater Lake, so we decided to take the scenic route home.
Our first stop was Salt Creek Falls, located a few miles west of the Willamette Pass summit on Highway 58.
I hadn’t been to the falls in many years, so I didn’t realize that there is now a park there. Previously, there was just a short dirt trail to the falls from a pull-off on the highway.
Willamette Pass Ski Area.
When we ski in Oregon, we usually go to Willamette Pass Ski Area, located at the summit of Willamette Pass, at 5120'.
The snow is wet and the best runs have long, long run-outs, but it’s close to Eugene and it has the only FIS-sanctioned speed skiing course in America.
If you come up on a powder day during the week, you’ll get freshies all day long.
They just put in a gondola last year. This is a big improvement on the old way to the top, which was a two-lift shuttle.
We started skiing here in 1969, when all they had was a Poma platter lift and a rope tow. Now it’s practically a destination resort.
A view of Wizard Island from the west.
The trail switchbacks down to the Cleetwood Cove boat dock.
We reached Crater Lake around noon and immediately drove to the Cleetwood Cove trailhead to hike down to the lake. The trail is about a mile long, drops 700’, and is used to access boat tours.
After hiking down to Cleetwood Cove we went swimming. ¡Es muy frio!
It was a hot, hazy day, with the haze probably coming from forest fires. We jumped in the water to cool off, and then had a nice lunch of leftover pizza.
A beautiful day at the lake.
Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the U.S., and one of the clearest in the world; the visibility is about 140 feet. The water is an amazingly vivid shade of blue, even bluer than Lake Tahoe.
The lake level is read from this shack.
If you come early, you can get a boat ride ($23.50) out to Wizard Island and spend the day there. There’s also a number of trails on the rim that climb up to 2,000 feet above the lake.
Crater Lake from the Sinnott Memorial Overlook at the Rim Village.
We still had a long drive back to Tahoe, so we had to leave too soon. It would be nice to spend a week there, hiking and biking around.
Chugging up the first hill on the South Willamette Trail.
Nancy and I went out for a short ride on the South Willamette Trail, which parallels Lookout Point Reservoir a few miles east of Dexter.
The trailhead accesses several trails, including the Hardesty Mt. trail and Eula Creek trail, both 3,300' downhills, and a 2,000' downhill from Eagles Rest to Goodman Creek. All of these rides can be shuttled.
Oregon trails are lush and green, even in the middle of August.
The trail is typical of Oregon—a zillion turns, solid dirt, and overgrown with ferns, Oregon grape and occasional blackberries.
We only rode a few miles because it was such a hot day, and then took a dip in Dexter Reservoir, which—surprisingly—is colder than anything in Tahoe.
Watching the Eugene Emeralds at Civic Stadium.
We drove up to Eugene for a few days to help my folks begin divesting themselves of a lifetime of stuff.
Bryn, Ada, Kai and Sami had also come down from Victoria, eh?, so we got to visit with them and talk about curling, beavers, and where you can find “the best dog gone badadoes that's ever been growed.”
We went out one night to watch the Eugene Emeralds get mashed by Tri-Cities, 9–2. The game was a little dull, due to the Ems inability to pitch, hit, run or throw, but the hot dogs are huge and Civic Stadium is a cool old ballpark.
| Kai, shocked by another throwing error by the Ems. | Mr. Spock, Jr. finds the Ems play most illogical. | You can sponsor this child for only 9¢ a day. Won't you help? | FREE BREAD!! |
A waterfall on the Tahoe Rim Trail, about 2 miles from the Mt. Rose Highway summit.
Nancy got tickets to the Shakespeare on the Lake production of Comedy of Errors. The productions are staged at Sand Harbor, just past Incline Village, so we made a day of it by hiking a short section of the Tahoe Rim Trail that is closed to mountain bikes.
We hiked the section from the Mt. Rose Highway summit to where it joins the Mt. Rose trail, and then continued hiking up to the shoulder of Mt. Rose. The trail is fairly flat until it meets the Mt. Rose trail, but then quickly starts climbing.
Hiking up the Mt. Rose trail, with Mt. Rose (10,776’) in the background.
We were surprised to find a waterfall a couple of miles in. The snow is almost entirely gone, but we crossed a few small streams that were fed by springs.
The trail gets a ton of traffic on weekends, including equestrians. We never hiked more than a few minutes without passing someone.
You get a glimpse of Carson Valley just before returning to the trailhead.
We hiked about seven miles, gaining 1000’. We could have hiked to the summit, but we had to get back to Sand Harbor in time to get a parking spot.
The play was very enjoyable, a campy, Western-themed version of the play with numerous pop references. Nancy said it was the best Shakespeare she’d ever seen.
