Jeff and Paula's trip up the McKenzie River...and then some!
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First picture of Koosah Falls as we entered the trail. That water you see is the McKenzie river.
You can't really hear it, but this waterfall is very loud. Central Oregon did not receive as much rain the last two years, so the water level was low. I can only imagine what it would look like with the full amount of rain and snowmelt...
In the Chinook language, Koosah means sky or heaven. Notice how blue the sky is, too!
Here's the McKenzie river as we hiked from Koosah falls toward Sahalie falls.
The trail and river were surrounded by Red Cedars and Douglas Firs.
Now we're looking up the river from a particularly cool spot. The cold water makes a cool breeze that rushes down the trail.
I thought this was cool. These big trees fell down into the river and the water is crashing all around them. You can't see it in the picture, but that water is about 20 feet deep there, and you can see the bottom!
This is the water right above the logs
I had to go down and see how cold that water was. Yep. Damn cold.
There are the logs again. Can you tell I liked them?
You can see the bottom of the river here. It's about 20 feet deep, although its hard to tell in a digital picture. There's a stick about 2/3 of the way from left to right that you can see. That's a small log about 15 feet down.
This is one of the tall trees along the way. It is a Douglas Fir
Now, we arrived at the top of Sahalie Falls and took a picture of the McKenzie down below
This is Sahalie falls.
This would have been a great picture of Paula, except the sun bouncing off the white waterfall hid her in shadow.
Like Koosah, the word Sahalie can also mean sky or heaven in Chinook
Even from way up on the hill, you could see down to the bottom of the river
We took this one on the way back up the gorge. You can really see the rainbow from the waterfall in this picture.
Carmen Diversion Reservoir is downstream from Sahalie falls. Once the fast moving water hits the slow moving man-made lake, the debris from upstream collects at the bottom. It is deep water in spots, but you can see straight down to the bottom.
The swan had to get out of the water to warm up, since the water is so cold.
This duck stopped by to say hello and gloat about the University of Oregon Ducks' victory over the Fresno State Bulldogs.
Carmen Reservoir was neat to look at--but wait...what's that out in the water?
whatever it is, it's moving closer...
Aha! A family of otters playing in the lake! Neat!
Well, after we hiked back up the gorge to where we parked, we decided to drive a little further up the McKenzie for a place to eat our fig newtons and apples. So we drove a few more miles and hit Highway 20, which is the road you take out to Sisters and Bend. The
mileage sign said that Sisters was in 29 miles, so we figured, what the hell, we're well beyond 3/4's of the way there anyway, lets have lunch in Sisters. So we drove on out there.
Along the way, we were amazed at the devastation caused by the B&B forest fires from last year. I've been through here twice before and always marvelled at how dense the forest was. In this picture, you can see the charred remains of this burned forest. The mountain in the distance is Mt. Washington. It is usually covered in glaciers and snow, but there hasn't been much snow out here the past few years.
Well, we arrived in Sisters and had lunch, then poked around some of the tourist trap stores and stuff. On our way out, we took a detour to take a picture of the mountains, and encountered some California Quail! This one is a male.
They were all lurking around in the back of a church parking lot. This one may be a female.
This is either one or the other, or a different one entirely.
This dormant volcano is Broken Top. There's a crater where its top should be, almost like it broke off.
I wanted to take a picture of the Three Sisters (Hope, Faith and Charity--don't ask me which one is which--or more commonly known as North Sister, Middle Sister and South Sister). These are all dormant volcanoes, too. Broken top is over on the left.
Now, here they are again without the fence. From Left to Right, Broken Top, South Sister, Middle Sister and North Sister.
Anyway, it's time to head back to Springfield! I hope you enjoyed the virtual tour!