Day 13: 9/28/2010
Portland, OR-Honeyman State Park, OR, 295.4 miles
http://goo.gl/maps/3JPy


And we're off! I feel like we've headed south from Portland before... We headed the other way this time and took Highway 224 southeast to go through the Cascade Mountain Range... In daylight this time! It was completely gorgeous. We made it quite a ways before stop number one at the Clackamas River, which the road follows for a long time. We pulled off after a bridge and walked around a little bit. There were some really pretty rapids, some bit enough to be like small waterfalls, and under the bridge where we walked there were big boulders that were covered in moss! Really pretty.

A little bit further on where the road goes higher above the river, I just saw a gorgeous canyon part of the river and we pulled off at a pullout and followed a trail we probably wouldn't have spotted otherwise down to the canyon. It was so amazing! There was a little tram there that would get you across the river, it would have been fun to hang above the water :-) It was private and padlocked though, lol. But the canyon itself was incredible, aside of Tormented Valley near Skagway, this is now my favorite rock area! Mathew said it was volcanic rock. I loved the way you could see more bits of rock just below the water surface, and some was almost covered in moss so it looked really amazing. Pictures to come!

At that point we were probably already in the Cascades, but we started getting higher up in them and seeing lava fields! So cool. The black and dark grey rock looked amazing with the green and red fall colors. Yay! The prettiest areas were where there were no pullouts, go figure. But we drove off the road a little to Clear Lake Resort and saw a lovely lake with lava rocks around it, and it had a sign pointing toward waterfalls further down the road! We stopped at both waterfalls, and walked down short trails to view each one. I'm so lucky and glad I got to share all of these places with somebody I love!

We also stopped at the Leaburg Fish Hatchery, and to get there we drove across a dam!!! So cool. We went to this viewing pond at the hatchery, and they had fish food! A little dispenser you could put quarters in to feed the fish. Mathew managed to get rid of some more Canadian change there :p It was so incredible the way the fish would all come over and splash around for the food. There were also these three ducks in the pond, and they were really funny as well. I think they were trying to be subtle about wanting the fish food... Mathew said the fish were all brown trout probably and then pointed out a really big one at the bottom... But not a trout! Catfish! They were -so- big, the largest probably 5-6 feet long, and you could just barely make them out when they moved. Crazy.

We passed through Eugene, Oregon on Highway 126 headed for the coast, and that took us back to Florence, OR on Highway 101 yay! Around Eugene we called the Florence Chamber of Commerce to ask about camping, because through the Cascades every campsite we saw was closed for the season... The lady suggested Honeyman State Park, though I definitely heard "Hinnemin" instead... It's just south of Florence and she said it was the best in the entire state. Lol, we doubted her word and planned to go further south anyway, but in the end we went there.

First we got fuel in Florence and I was hugely disappointed that the girl inside was just closing down the coffee stand, so we stopped somewhere else to get hot chocolate, yay! Then south to camp!

Honeyman State Park is awesome! It's right at the beginning of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. We got there early enough to set up camp and then went for a walk in the dunes. Rather hard to walk in, but it was really fun. Mathew was really fun to watch running down the dunes, and then we made sand angels and stared at the stars. I was slightly horrified to realize how dark it was walked back through the trees, but Mathew lead me along the trail very gallantly and didn't let any bugs get me. Near the end I remembered my camera makes an ok flashlight and felt pretty stupid, but havin' the guy you love lead you through a scary forest trail is totally worth it!

Back at the campsite Mathew made tea and we played some more Ziggity, which I think Mathew won mostly, and then to bed... On our brand new camping gear! Comfy!