Summer Trip Day 2: Portland to Prineville Reservoir Rec Area

Day 2 brought us some cloudy Portland weather which is normal for this time of year.  We get the same thing up in Seattle.  Typically it’s cloudy in the morning and then the afternoon sun burns it off.  We left Sarah and Aaron around 9am and headed east to Mt. Hood.  Drew started getting into an audio book the day before (The Hunger Games) so I turned it on while we drove which made him happy and not watching a moving on his iPad.  Olivia, on the other hand, is stubborn and refuses to listen in so spends her time watching TV shows on her phone with headphones. 

We made it to a place called Government Camp on Mt. Hood that is kind of a central hub for skiers, snowboarders, etc.  and checked out their visitor’s center/museum which had some good displays around earlier mountaineering and skiing in the area.  The best is that they had a clean bathroom for Drew to empty the tank which is always important when traveling multiple hours.  He’s still at the age where he thinks it’s perfectly OK to “drop trough” as soon as you arrive at a campsite regardless of who or what is around.  Yes, it did happen when we got to our campsite today!

We made our way up to Timberline Lodge which is basically right at the timberline of Mt Hood.  The clouds cleared up at this elevation and we had a beautiful view of the mountain and all the skiers/show boarders doing, I guess, summer skiing?  There was even a lift that was open taking people up the mountain!  

Mt. Hood

The fun thing about Timberline Lodge is the front of the lodge was used for the movie, The Shining.  I mentioned this to the kids and they, of course, wanted to know the entire story line.  Oh boy.  Olivia got her hands on a trailer of The Shining on her phone so her and Drew could watch it.  While we were looking around lodge I was bombarded with questions about the movie and finally had to tell Drew, “Stop saying RedRum!” 

Heeere's Johnny!

After getting over to the eastern side of Mt. Hood, the clouds completely burned off and we found ourselves in much more arid climate.  We drove a couple more hours to this beautiful campground called Prineville Reservoir Rec Area east of Bend, OR.  Fortunately it was a Sunday night and the campground wasn’t completely full, but I am thankful I had made a reservation ahead of time.  It just validates my concern of showing up to a campground and having it completely full or, at best, a crappy camp site.  

We really lucked out because the view from the campsite was amazing!  It is also the cleanest campsite I have ever seen.  The camp hosts truly take pride in their campground.  The only problem is that the chipmunks have become somewhat domesticated due to people feeding them and they have no problem coming up to you or trying to find a way into your camper.  Of course, the boy found a way to feed one from his hand.  Yes, a conversation was had about feeding wildlife!

Drew and Olivia went swimming immediately and discovered little green balls all over their body which turned out to be algae.  No big deal, but it freaked them out so pleaded to take a shower.  I, of course, told them to find one in the campground (which took them a couple of laps on the scooter each time stopping by to tell me there weren’t any showers).  Yes, they eventually found one.  After swimming, the kids explored the campground on their scooters while I made dinner (chicken tacos). 

Drew managed to find a fishing dock and immediately pleaded to go fishing so after dinner I helped him with his fishing pole and some tackle.  There was an old guy down there catching fish every 5 minutes of so and was happily sharing his techniques with people so I headed back to the campsite.  Drew came back about a half hour later stating that he had ‘caught a crabby!’  Umm, I think you mean a crappy?  Yeah, that.  Apparently,  he got some good advice from the old fisherman, managed to catch a fish and was nice enough to give the fish to the old man.  That boy has a kind heart. 

We started a small fire in the fire pit, had a s’mores cooking competition, and then headed in to watch a movie on the laptop.  Yeah, not exactly “roughing it”, but I’m a sucker for movie watching and it was a good way to end the day.