Up the River

The last time we went to Lava Butte, we saw a sign leading to Benham Falls, but we didn't go there. Sunday we returned to the Lava Lands Visitor Center, but rather than go in, we took the road to the Benham Falls trailhead and parked by the Deschutes River. Then we hiked a half mile to Benham Falls, pictured above. The hike was very gentle, and the views were drop-dead gorgeous. I prefer it when the views are drop-dead instead of the hike. When we got to the falls, there was a small parking lot with cars in it. How did they get there? Had we just hiked a half mile for nothing?

I asked a woman how she got to the parking lot, and she told of a road you can take that leads to Lava Island Falls, Dillon Falls and Benham Falls. It approaches from the opposite direction. So after we hiked back to our car, I drove about twenty miles to the other way in, and we stopped at Lava Island Falls. It was nice, but not overly impressive, so we continued on to Dillon Falls.



Dillon Falls was stunningly beautiful. The hike along the river was easy, the photo opportunities plentiful. All three areas are on the Deschutes River, which runs past our house. If I fell asleep on a raft on the Deschutes, it would take me past these falls and north to the Columbia River, then west to Portland where it would dump me in the Pacific Ocean.

You can view more of our photos on Flickr here and here. If you explore my photostream, you'll also find photos of Lava Island Falls, and the Balloons over Bend from the day before.

After we were done hiking, we drove to Sunriver for their annual wine and music festival, and had dinner at El Pescador, which is always delicious. It had rained on the way from the falls to Sunriver, but it was clear while we ate outside. Yesterday it rained again, with booming thunderstorms and hail. In Bend they got hailstones the size of golf balls, which did quite a bit of damage, but the hail we got was more like mothballs. Every day here's an adventure!


Blog Tag: Images