Monday September 16

Time to leave the Prospect Inn and make our way north. We had passed the Rouge Gorge twice while going to the Park and decided to stop and have a look on our way out of Prospect. Very beautiful set of rapids and gorge...

Our destination for today was Bend Oregon.

The most direct route there was past Crater Lake again and we took the opportunity to stop at Annie Creek for breakfast. We found out that they were closing for the season in three weeks because of the expected snow! Wow, still in the 70's today!

We decided to follow the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway to Bend rather than the state highway. 

This route took us by sparkling lakes, snow capped peaks and unique volcanic strata along this 100 km stretch of highway. We passed by Davis Lake, Lava Lake, Elk Lake and Spark Lake which are all part of the Deschutes River chain which flows north to the Columbia River. The Cascades mountains are highlighted by Mt Bachelor which is a major ski resort in the area.

Saw a really brilliant Steller's Jay...

We stopped at a recreation area for lunch beside the Deschutes River.

Bend Oregon is a city of 80,000 with a definite outdoors oriented theme. Lots of bike and ski shops with vibrant shopping areas and a downtown with 28 restaurants.

We had supper at the Deschuttes brew pub where I got to sample my choice of six of their microbrews. There were at least three that I would try again.

We returned to our motel where again they featured slow speed internet and was unable to upload photos..