Finish the Trip:

This blog is starting at the end and jumping forward.  Such is my life in the world of blogging.  Above is a photo of the Stitchin Post, a "bucket list" entry that I have now checked off.  Sisters is the home of a fantastic city-wide outdoor quilt show put on  the second Saturday of July every year. This has been going on for the past 39 years and started by Jean Wells, owner of Stitchin Post as well as a well known artist and author.  July couldn't happen for us, so as we were putting together our trip to the great Northwest, this was put on the "to do" list.  It didn't disappoint.  I discovered a great fabric designer by the name of Marsha Derse and bought a few pieces from her line.  As nobody in Utah carries it, I just may have to make a return visit one of these days.

The town itself is a rather small tourist town in the middle of Oregon.  Aside from the quilt store this is a great town for strolling with some great little restaurants and stores to keep you occupied.   It's a bit out of the way of major highways, but if quilting, fishing, hiking, camping, etc. is what you are into, this is a place to visit.

OK, we are now back in order of our "adventure".  Redwood National Park is located in the Northwest corner of California.  There are some amazing groves both south and north of Eureka along the coast.  We turned north and toured a spectacular grove of trees located in an area called Stout Grove.  While you can get a general idea about the height and width of these trees, it takes someone standing beside one to really put it in perspective.  The loop we walked was less than 1.5 miles but I know that I took over 50 photos.  I just couldn't stop saying "Roger, stop right there, I want to take a picture."

After leaving the coast and the Redwoods we turned inland passing through Medford, Oregon and headed on to Crater Lake National Park.  The geography of much of the western US is highlighted by ancient volcanic activity.  Crater Lake is a volcanic caldera filled in to form a lake through yearly runoff of the snow pack from the surrounding crater walls.  As no other water source flows into it, it has maintained a beautiful deep blue color that is breathtaking.  My photos did not do it justice.

  

 Kim, almost the whole of Yellowstone sits, in fact, in an ancient volcanic caldera that is still bubbling and steaming away.  One day...... Super Volcano!

Our plans were to go on to Sisters and then head west again to the Oregon coast, follow it up to Portland and then head east and west into Idaho and home.  As per normal, we bit off more than we could chew and realized that as I had to be home on Monday for family commitments, we really needed three more days instead of the one day we actually had.  So, realizing that we can always go back, we headed home from Sisters.  A great trip taken at the best time possible (school in, roads pretty isolated, temps perfect) and with the perfect traveling companion.  Loved it!