Attempted Camping + Crater Lake

Luke + I had grand plans for the 4th of July holiday weekend. We set out to embark on a two-day camping trip with our Ford Escape packed full with our tent, sleeping bags, air mattress, camping chairs, a cooler stocked with delicious food, TWO dogs (I'm dog-sitting for my boss), a few changes of clothes, extra towels, etc... you get the point - we were ready to have a fun few days off the grid! On Friday after work we loaded up and drove to my parents house in Madras, Oregon for the evening with plans to drive south on Saturday morning. Well, before we could even get our trip started I fell down the stairs in my parents' garage and hurt my ankle bad, real bad - so bad that I couldn't walk. I spent the evening on the couch with an ice pack on my foot bumming out on the fact that all these magnificent hikes we had planned are now not going to happen. By the next morning I could hobble around and I was thanking my lucky stars that my foot was only sprained and not broken. Still determined, we set off on our camping trip!

After a quick stop in Bend, Oregon for some lunch (and a few brewskis) we continued down south. We set up camp and ventured out to explore our surroundings. We drove around the lake and then ventured out to the "beach" area where people were swimming, drinking beers, listening to music and BBQ'ing. It was so nice and so sunny. After some relaxation at the "beach" we eventually made our way back to our campsite to cook dinner and hang out. Dinner took almost 3x longer to cook because the campfire was being difficult (it could have been user error, but Holly won't admit that...). Then we quickly realized we had left the dog food at my parents' house. Sigh. I drove down to a tiny store to pick up the smallest and most expensive bag of dog food - that only one dog ended up eating. We then realized that we didn't purchase any bug spray and the mosquitos were flying around like WOAH! Back to the store... they're all sold out of bug spray. Another sigh. To top off the evening, Luke's allergies never got better, I exerted too much pressure on my foot, and our air mattress kept going flat. I'm sure you can tell that neither of us were having a stellar evening. We went to bed early and decided that with all these little annoyances, it was only going to be a one-night camping trip. Oh well, we tried!

Scroll down past the camping photos because this post gets better!

The next morning we woke up early (deflated air mattress, remember?) made a quick breakfast, showered at the campsite and then drove to Crater Lake - an approximate 20 minute drive from our campground. We spent a few hours driving around the Rim Loop (the road that circles the lake) and stopping off at various viewpoints to take in the view from all angles. And what a view it was! It's places like this that make me proud to be an Oregonian. Even though I was born and raised in Oregon and still live here, the beauty in this state continuously blows me away. We spent a few hours admiring the lake, taking photos, visiting the lodge and taking more photos before we started the drive home.

- Photos © Holly Copeland -