Last Days at the Umpqua River - OR

Oakland, Oregon
Umpqua Riverfront RV Park


Our time here is almost over and then we'll be moving on to the coast.  We got a call from Curt and Glenda that they can meet us for a day before they move north.  We're always glad to get some Curt and Glenda time in when we can especially since we had to cancel our week or two time together while we had some unexpected repairs done. Curt suggested meeting at the Mt. Pisgah Arboretum for some hiking.

 On the way we enjoyed the views as usual.

It was pretty hot and a little muggy but we enjoyed the shady trails around the park.

We made sure to check for ticks afterwards as they are all over.  Good thing, as Curt and Steve were tromping through the bushes looking for geocaches and I brushed a couple off of Steve.

 

 

We took a short drive to the Hop Valley Brewing Company for some lunch.  It was a nice day.

On the way back home we stopped in Drain to visit the historic part of the Oregon Trail.  There was a geocache here too.

On one of the last days we took a day trip to visit some waterfalls with Steve and Diane.  There is the North Umpqua Trail that follows the North Umpqua River for 79 miles.  The parts of it we could see followed the river closely and took you past many waterfalls and small lakes.  What a great trail to hike.

Diane & Steve

Watson Falls is a 272 foot waterfall which has a short trail just over a mile.  It was Memorial Weekend so it was pretty busy.  It was a beautiful hike.

North Umpqua River.  Very cold and much clearer than the part of the Umpqua that we are on.

Besides the falls we wanted to take a short hike to some hot springs.  We didn't think it would be too busy as it was a bit of a drive down a rough dirt road.

The hike had some steep parts to it where you had to watch your foot placement due to roots and rocks but it was a pretty hike.

Still some Dogwoods blooming here.

Human Waste?  Uh, yuck.  I won't be going in! 

The color of the hot springs pools were a pretty blue but there was a lot of graffiti here and some garbage and more people than I would've guessed.

Many of the pools hang over the edge of the hillside above the river.

Some of these springs can reach up to 108 degrees so beware.

Steve decided to check and see how hot 108 feels like  ;-)

We also looked more closely at a spot in the trail that was covered with what I thought was Cottonwood-type fluff that floats around from trees in the spring.  On the way back I realized that there were only pines and firs here, no Cottonwoods.  Once we looked closer and followed the path you could see they were downy feathers, not fluff.  And more concentrated under a low branch.  Oops.  It was some hawk's leftovers!

Diamond Lake

 One last time on the Umpqua River before we leave.

 My brother, Steve, and Red out on the water.

Nice one Red!

 Nice one Steve!

 

It's been a great couple of weeks fishing with family and friends.  Looking forward to some time on the coast and some good seafood!