Chiloquin

After a surprisingly good sleep in a dodgy hotel, we continued our way south towards Crater Lake National Park. One thing we've noticed is how the days generally start cloudy, but then burn off to make a beautiful day. Since we'd enjoyed downtown so much yesterday, we wandered back down this morning to find a nice place for breakfast. We settled on a pub that served some decent French toast, as well as a riverside cafe that seemed to be experts in coffee.

We left around 9.30am and stopped at a few towns on the way for petrol and groceries, particularly since we weren't sure what would be available closer to our accommodation. The place we are staying is from Airbnb. It is a cabin style accommodation rented out by a lady named Beth, and is much more reasonably priced than the other options in the area. Even though the roof is low due to it being a sloped roof, it had everything we needed.

There also had three Australian Shepherd dogs who were a bit wary of strangers! Beth was able to give us a lot of information regarding the sights to see, so we were definitely prepared for the day. We headed straight to Crater Lake National Park, which was our whole reason for visiting this area. The weather was spectacular, and we were very lucky to be treated to unparalleled views of the lake. The lake is actually a dormant volcano, and has some of the bluest water we've seen.

We drove the entire way around the lake, stopping at every viewpoint we thought would give a better view than the previous one. As it was getting later in the day, we also went to check out the Crater Lake Lodge which had a beautiful view out back of the lake, complete with deck chairs. The only thing missing was the beers.

Beth had recommended that we drive to nearby Henzel Park for a view of the sunset over the lake. Not great! Despite the fact there was one car idling strangely nearby, there were also a thousand bugs (we were too scared to open our mouths!). We feigned taking a few photos before leaving to check out nearby Chiloquin. Eye opener! It is literally a run down railroad town, complete with boarded up shops and a lot of bored teenagers standing around. We did surprisingly find a decent supermarket, meaning we didn't need to stop at all those roadside general stores on the way!

Since one of the town's "attractions" was the casino, we thought we would check it out. Meh. We put $5 into one of the poker machines before losing total interest and leaving. Truly the redneck part of Oregon here!

The best option was to go back to our cabin and chill. There were a few bugs in the room but they seemed to leave once we turned off the outside lights. Less pleasant though were the bugs in my hair that surfaced when I washed it. A little keepsake from Henzel Park it seemed!

Tomorrow we have another day here to explore the area. Whilst we'll give Chiloquin a wide berth, there should be more to see near the National Park.Read more