So, I had the goal of updating the ol’ blog at the end of each day during Becca’s stay in hopes of remembering everything that we did. Obviously, that didn’t happen, but hopefully I’ll be able to keep it all straight.
For the second day of Becca’s Oregon adventure trip, we started our morning with breakfast at Hideaway Bakery, which is adorable and full of yummy goodness. We got to eat breakfast on the patio because summertime in Oregon is awesome (of course, I’m writing this at 9 pm and it is still 90 degrees outside, so it’s hit or miss around here).
After fueling up on deliciousness, we headed east down the McKenzie Highway toward the Cascades. Our first stop was Tamolitch Pool, where we enjoyed a 4-mile (round trip) hike to the Blue Pool. It’s a nice, easy hike through the forest alongside the McKenzie River, which is 100% beautiful. I don’t know that I’ll ever get over the colors of the rivers around here. It’s definitely something worth seeing. You can read about our previous hikes to Tamolitch Pool here and here.
I’ve heard about people jumping off the cliffs into the water here, but this was the first time I actually saw it happen. It was insane. Keep in mind that the water in the Blue Pool is just barely above freezing. Becca and I dipped our feet in, but that was enough for me.
We packed a picnic lunch to enjoy down by the pool, where we chatted it up with a man who once lived in Louisiana and has a daughter who played volleyball for the University of Kentucky. Crazy. It truly is a very small world.
We headed up the road a bit to park at Sahalie Falls and take in the view of the massive amount of water pouring through those falls. Holy cow. From there, we strolled down the path running along the river to Koosah Falls.
We returned to the car and headed west until we reached Highway 242 (McKenzie Pass), which Eric and I have been wanting to drive since we moved here last September (unfortunately, Eric had to stay home and work while Becca and I had all the fun). This road was originally the only highway going east out of Eugene, but now it is mostly a scenic byway, so it isn’t plowed in the winter, meaning it is closed to cars from late fall to mid-summer. Apparently it is pretty popular with cyclists (and if you have 6 minutes to spare, you should watch this video I stumbled upon of some cyclists biking the highway to the summit, just to see the view). We got to drive down a small portion of the highway to the Proxy Falls trail head. We hiked through some lava rock (read: hot) and made it down to the waterfall, which was incredible. Absolutely gorgeous.
We may have gotten slightly lost heading back up to the trail head (it’s hard to tell what’s a trail and what isn’t around here, and nothing is really marked), but it was definitely worth the confusion.
Day 2: hiking in the Cascades, complete!
-Ally
FashionDreamer says
omg this looks so gorgeous!! I’ve been in Oregon only once in a small town but I will never forget the gorgeous nature walk I got to walk on. NYC is not exactly nature friendly hahaha. Thanks for an awesome post.
http://thesisterhoodclub.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/wild/
ericandally says
Thanks! Oregon is pretty darn beautiful. It’s definitely worth a second trip out here! Thanks for reading!