Outta There!

 After an abortive attempt to visit Mt Hood, we have left the Portland area. Our plan was to see the dormant volcano before it disappeared under multiple feet of snow, but a day of rain, clouds, and fog foiled us. Mt Hood was the last of the Pacific Rim volcanoes that we wanted to see and we wanted to complete that bucket list item. Oh, well. Next time!

155 miles southeast, Bend, Oregon was the next destination. US Highway 26 skips past Mt Hood on the way to Bend, through some really beautiful forest.

After passing the small towns of Sandy, Cherryville and Rhododendron, Mt Hood came into view.

We got close!

Sliding down a long grade, we passed some interesting rock formations, probably formed as part of the tectonic plate activity that has been around for centuries.

Just west of where highway 26 joins US 97 at the town of Madras, Mt Bachelor popped up in the distance.

We had obviously left the high mountain trees and joined a perfect high desert.

It wasn’t a long trip today, but it went through a variety of terrain. It was interesting, but most importantly, we are out of the metro Portland area! We’ve secured a site in the Bend RV Resort, a new and freshly opened rv park. It is indeed a resort, with paved roads throughout, concrete rv sites and robot lawn mowers!

We had a bit of a t-storm as we pulled in and had the pleasure of setting up camp in a downpour! Not to worry, though, it was over in a couple of hours and besides, we had a warm place inside to dry out and get warm!